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36 The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume III - 2011 36 Development of the National Language Policy (2006-2010) Committee to Draft the National Language Policy The Royal Institute of Thailand 5 Since 1949, there have been 17 major United Nations declarations and resolutions related to the protection and preservation of ethnic minority languages and culture. The most recent of these was the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by General Assembly Resolution 61/295 on 13 September 2007. Thailand was one of the 143 countries which voted in support of this resolution. Thus, the NLP is helping Thailand to come into compliance with international human rights standards by emphasizing that all Thai citizens of ethnic descent have the right continue to use their motherfitongue while also acquiring fluency in the Thai language. Thailandûs ethnic diversity also holds implications for public health and legal services. UNICEFûs 2007 Multiple Indicator Cluster Study of Women and Children in Thailand, for example, found that vaccination rates and knowledge of AIDS/HIV was lower among ethnic minority language speakers in comparison to the population as a whole. Thus, the Thai Ministry of Public Health, as well as UNICEF and UNESCO, are now using ethnic languages, as well as immigrant languages (primarily Burmese and Mon), in health campaigns. On the issue of legal services, hill tribe leaders claim that some ethnic people have been unfairly imprisoned because they did not understand police or court proceedings, as Thailand has no laws requiring court interpreters for non-Thai speakers. The National Reform Committee, chaired by former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun, reported that the unique educational needs of ethnic children and respect for ethnic identities are important for national reconciliation (National Reform Committee, 2554: 29, 33). 5 3.3 Subcommittee on Languages of Commerce, Neighboring Languages, and Working Languages 3.3.1 Scope This subcommittee was charged with investigating the roles of various languages of commercefiprincipally English, but also Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In addition, they investigated the language situation vis- - vis the languages of neighboring countries. 3.3.2 Findings English is very important to Thailand. Nonetheless, some Thai children might be being forced to learn English too soon, without acquiring a foundation in 29-44_mac9 4/26/12, 8:30 PM 36