Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
Her Excellency Ms Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of the Republic of Iceland, was appointed UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Languages in October 1998, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the promotion of linguistic diversity and plurilingual education.
During her term of office as President, H.E. Ms Finnbogadóttir devoted herself to encouraging and promoting the identity and integrity of Iceland, especially its culture and its language. She received special recognition from the Icelandic Language Foundation for her active support of the Icelandic language during her time as President of Iceland.
In her capacity as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, she participated to numerous events and debates on the importance of multilingualism such as the UNESCO Regional Conference to support Literacy, held in Baku in May 2008.
In April 2017, she inaugurated at Reykjavik the Vigdís International Centre of Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding, a category 2 Centre under the auspices of UNESCO.