A/HRC/28/64/Add.2 65. The Special Rapporteur welcomed the establishment of the National Dialogue Conference 2014, a nationwide forum convened in Abuja under the auspices of the Government to bring together a wide range of stakeholders (492 delegates representing ethnic groups, civil society organizations, political parties and professional associations, among others) to discuss and address the challenges Nigeria faces. Many civil society actors noted that the Conference could provide an ideal arena to discuss nationally longstanding minority issues and challenges and provide communities with a participatory role in this forum. Interviewees expressed hope that representatives of minority groups would be invited to attend the meetings. 66. The Special Rapporteur notes that further consideration of the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference 2014 are required in order to understand the implications for minority issues. However, she welcomed the recommendation of the Conference that States should establish a 35 per cent quota to ensure that women, minorities, people with disabilities and other marginalized groups participate and are represented in governance and other spheres of life. VIII. Linguistic rights 67. According to estimates of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),15 27 languages are currently endangered in Nigeria. However, a pilot survey on endangered languages and cultures in Nigeria conducted by the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation in 2010 determined that there were 520 languages in the country, hundreds which fell into the category of “endangered language”. 68. Diverse civil society actors also conveyed their concerns over minority languages in decline or at risk of disappearing within their territories and lamented those already lost. Many spoke passionately about the need to implement measures to protect their mother tongues. Various reasons have been given as the leading causes of the disappearance of minority languages, including the lack of mother-tongue instruction, the failure to include minority languages in the school curriculum, the lack of political willingness to promote local languages, the pressure exerted by languages spoken by large populations of speakers and the abandonment of native languages in favour of Nigerian Pidgin or English, among others. 69. It was evident that there were different and opposing approaches to how to tackle the problem of the decline and disappearance of minority languages in Nigeria. Some described the need to amend article 55 of the Constitution, which states that “the business of the National Assembly shall be conducted in English, and in Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba when adequate arrangements have been made thereof”, considering it gives prevalence to three specific languages over all others. This approach was also very critical of the current language education curriculum in Nigerian schools, in which it is compulsory to study either Hausa, Ibo or Yoruba, in addition to English, and which does not have any provision regarding minority language education. 70. On the other hand, some were of the opinion that prioritizing Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba languages, the three most widely spoken languages, along with English, was beneficial. Those of this perspective maintained that it was not feasible to provide mother-tongue education in each of the minority languages, given their large number. Instead, they maintained that the primary responsibility for educating children in their mother tongue was 15 16 Available from www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/index.php.