On 11 July 2025, at the 24th International Congress on the Education of the Deaf in Rome, the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), the European Union of the Deaf (EUD), and the Italian National Association of the Deaf (ENS) jointly issued a historic declaration. The statement unequivocally rejects the 1880 Milan resolutions that suppressed the use of sign languages in education, affirming instead that sign languages are full and natural human languages. The declaration calls for urgent legal recognition of national sign languages, early access to sign language for deaf children, and the inclusion of deaf perspectives in education policy, in line with the CRPD. This joint declaration represents a major step forward in addressing the long-standing harm of language deprivation and promoting the linguistic and human rights of deaf people globally.
Read and sign the Joint Declaration
https://wfdeaf.org/resources/joint-declaration-iced/
