Nitobe Center
Nitobe Centre For Language Democracy
The Nitobe Centre For Language Democracy was developed to raise questions about international communication and egalitarian language policy. The Centre also coordinates an activist network to work in this area.
A specific focus of the The Nitobe Centre is to raise the level and intensity of public and political debate over language policy in a unifying Europe, with a view to developing a common, constructive, realistic language policy framework that would balance the protection and celebration of linguistic diversity with the need for effective, high-quality communication amongst all the citizens of the EU.
The Centre was inspired by a conference series (the Nitobe Symposium) organized in the years 1996-2007 by the Centre for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems. These conferences brought together activists, academics, bureaucrats and politicians to examine the linguistic dimensions of European integration and globalization. The fourth Symposium (July 30 - August 1, 2005, in Vilnius, Lithuania) drew particular attention to the need for broader and more informed discussion of issues of language and communication in all of the member states of the EU.