Nepal’s indigenous rights activists and educationists have urged the UN to take actions for implementation of the right to multilingual education in a letter of memorandum submitted to the UN country office on Tuesday for the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

The letter of memorandum recalls that indigenous peoples are provided right to quality education, including in their own languages, in international instruments such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Convention on the Rights of the Child and Sustainable Development Goals. Such right is also provided in Nepal’s new constitution. However, the right to education of indigenous peoples is yet to be realized.

With appreciation for the UN’s initiatives to fulfil the rights of indigenous peoples around the world, the letter calls for further solid actions to translate those international instruments into action, for which the activists and educationists offer their join hands.

The letter was submitted after a rally organized from Patan to the UN House, with participation of hundreds of school children acquiring multilingual education in various schools in Kathmandu.

Click here to read the full letter.