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Two se­nior Unit­ed Na­tions of­fi­cials, Tues­day said that every per­son de­serves the right to com­mu­ni­cate, learn, and par­tic­i­pate in so­ci­ety, ar­gu­ing that for deaf chil­dren and adults, sign lan­guage pro­vides that crit­i­cal gate­way.

In a joint mes­sage co­in­cid­ing with the In­ter­na­tion­al  Day of Sign Lan­guage, Si­mon Springett, UN Res­i­dent Co­or­di­na­tor, East­ern Caribbean and Er­ic Falt, the Unit­ed Na­tions Sci­en­tif­ic and Cul­tur­al  Or­gan­i­sa­tion (UN­ESCO) Re­gion­al Di­rec­tor for the Caribbean,  said that glob­al­ly, more than 70 mil­lion peo­ple are deaf, and over 80 per cent live in de­vel­op­ing coun­tries.

They said that recog­nis­ing and pro­mot­ing sign lan­guage is not a niche is­sue, but a mat­ter of fun­da­men­tal hu­man rights.