... 2009 (today), by declaration of UNESCO, the United Nations marks the 10th annual International Mother Language Day to "promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism." The chosen date coincides with the day in 1952 when, in Dhaka, in
what was then Pakistan but now is Bangladesh, police opened fire on university students who were demonstrating for the right to speak their native Bengali language. That event is commemorated in this pamphlet from Bangladesh's Dutch embassy. (credit for 2009 poster)... 1971, in conclusion of a 6-week, 71-country U.N. conference in Vienna, Austria, diplomats adopted the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, a treaty aimed at a global law enforcement response to drug trafficking. The convention would enter into force on August 16, 1976. Monitored by the International Narcotics Control Board, it now has 175 states parties.
(Prior February 21 posts are here and here.)
