The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Unicode are collaborating to highlight their shared commitment to ensuring that digitally disadvantaged communities, and especially Indigenous Peoples, can access digital environments and technologies to create, communicate, learn, and participate online in their own languages.
The collaboration reflects the multi-stakeholder spirit of the Global Action Plan of IDIL2022-2032, which recognizes the growing importance of private organizations and civil society in advancing language preservation and revitalization efforts worldwide.
The Unicode Consortium, founded in 1988 as a public-benefit, non-profit organization, develops open standards for software internationalization and digital services. Its work plays a key role in advancing digital inclusion, particularly by ensuring that the writing systems of the world’s languages are accurately represented across digital devices and platforms. Since its inception, Unicode has been integrated into all major operating systems and is now used on more than 20 billion devices worldwide. This enables billions of users to participate seamlessly in the digital environment, regardless of language, geography, or device.
“We at Unicode recognize that the ability for Indigenous communities to communicate, participate, and thrive online in their own languages is foundational to language preservation, revitalization, and community strength,” said Toral Cowieson, chief executive officer of Unicode.
Cowieson said the collaboration will deliver mutual benefits by raising global awareness of Unicode Consortium’s work for low-resourced languages through UNESCO’s extensive partner networks while creating new opportunities for collaboration. In turn, Unicode will support UNESCO’s inclusive digital initiatives with strategic expertise and policy guidance, advancing a more multilingual and equitable internet.
“We highly value the important work carried out by Unicode to ensure that all languages, including Indigenous languages, are represented and accessible in the digital world,” said Mariya Gabriel, assistant director-general for communication and information at UNESCO.
UNESCO (6/16/26)