Founded in 1978, the PEN International Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee (TLCR) works to defend linguistic diversity and promote translation as a vital act of cultural solidarity. From its early efforts to expand access to world literature to its pioneering advocacy for “minoritised” languages, the Committee has consistently challenged the political and cultural forces that marginalise languages and the communities that speak them.

The TLCR affirms that protecting linguistic rights is inseparable from defending freedom of expression. Through decades of collaboration with PEN Centres, writers, translators, and activists worldwide — including its role in developing the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights — the Committee continues to champion the right of all people to speak, write, and imagine in their own languages.