1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2021.
2021A/75/798Multilingualism report of the Secretary-General
iIdentified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.
What does this mandate say?
90 operative paragraphs
1
Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;
I.Multilingualism in general and the role of the Secretariat
2
Emphasizes the paramount importance of the equality of the six official languages of the United Nations;
3
Underlines the need for the full implementation of all resolutions establishing language arrangements for the official languages of the United Nations and the working languages of the Secretariat;
4
Also underlines the responsibility of the Secretariat in integrating multilingualism into its activities, from within existing resources, on an equitable basis;
5
Notes that the availability of United Nations documents in relevant official languages is limited in some areas of Secretariat activity, and therefore invites the Secretary-General to take the appropriate measures to implement, within existing resources, current multilingualism policies, in compliance with relevant rules and regulations;
6
Requeststhe Secretariat to continue to provide notes for the Presidents of the main organs and the Chairs of their subsidiary bodies in the United Nations official language spoken by the presiding officer of the meeting;
7
Notes that a high proportion of calls for bids are published in English, and therefore encourages the Secretariat, where appropriate, to make use of existing multilingualism policies to facilitate the participation of local vendors in the United Nations procurement bidding process;
8
Also notes that the Procurement Manual, published in three official languages, is in the process of being updated, and encourages the Secretariat to ensure that the updates are reflected in all its language versions in an appropriate time frame;
9
Recalls that the Secretary-General retains the authority to appoint a senior Secretariat official as the future Coordinator for Multilingualism, as first requested by the General Assembly in its resolution 54/64 of 6 December 1999;
10
Recalls with appreciation the appointment by the Secretary-General of the Coordinator for Multilingualism, who is responsible for the overall implementation of multilingualism Secretariat-wide, calls upon all departments and offices within the Secretariat to fully support the work of the Coordinator in the implementation of the relevant mandates on multilingualism, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon in his next report on multilingualism;
11
Recalls its endorsement of the terms of reference for the Coordinator for Multilingualism, as proposed in report A/71/757 of the Secretary-General on multilingualism;
12
Welcomes the designation of the Coordinator for Multilingualism as lead entity on multilingualism at the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination level, as well as the joint efforts of the Coordinator and the secretariat of the Chief Executives Board towards a more coordinated approach to multilingualism across member organizations of the Board, with a view to sharing information on innovative solutions to common challenges;
13
Also welcomes the ongoing development of the network of focal points that supports the Coordinator for Multilingualism in effectively and consistently implementing relevant resolutions throughout all Secretariat entities and the United Nations system;
14
Further welcomes the ongoing development of a Secretariat-wide coherent policy framework on multilingualism to support a comprehensive and coordinated approach on multilingualism within the United Nations, taking into consideration the relevant recommendations contained in the report of the Joint Inspection Unit on multilingualism, and requests the Secretary-General to report on progress made at the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly;
15
Notes the difficulties reported by Secretariat entities in compiling accurate and comprehensive data for the report of the Secretary-General, owing, inter alia, to the lack of disaggregated data by language, and welcomes efforts by the Coordinator for Multilingualism to address the problem among Secretariat entities;
16
Welcomes the efforts of the Coordinator for Multilingualism to encourage all Secretariat entities to promote the celebrations of a day dedicated to each of the official languages of the United Nations, in order to inform and raise awareness of their history, culture and use, encourages the Secretary-General to provide communication about each language day in the six official languages and further strengthen this approach in a cost-neutral manner, if needed through the participation of partner organizations, including Member States and institutions such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and also encourages the Secretary-General to consider extending this important initiative to other non-official languages spoken throughout the world;
17
Welcomes with appreciation the inclusion, in 2018, of a new category of the United Nations Secretary-General Awards aimed at honouring a staff member or team for their best practices and innovative approaches to fostering multilingualism at the United Nations;
18
Welcomes the efforts made by international organizations based on a shared language to increase their cooperation with the United Nations regarding multilingualism;
19
Also welcomes the activities of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Member States, entities of the United Nations system, other international organizations and all other participating bodies aimed at fostering respect for and the promotion and protection of all languages, in particular endangered ones, linguistic diversity and multilingualism;
20
Reaffirms that linguistic diversity is an important element of cultural diversity, stresses the importance of the full and effective implementation of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, which entered into force on 18 March 2007, and recalls the Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace of 15 October 2003;
II.Role of the Department of Global Communications in multilingualism
21
Reaffirms that the primary mission of the Department of Global Communications of the Secretariat is to provide, through its outreach activities, accurate, impartial, comprehensive, balanced, timely, relevant and multilingual information to the public on the tasks and responsibilities of the United Nations in order to strengthen international support for the activities of the Organization with the greatest transparency;
22
Requeststhe Secretary-General to ensure the full implementation of existing mandates in the area of multilingualism as they relate to information and communication, and in this regard encourages the Secretariat to explore the opportunities offered by the new information and communications technologies;
23
Also requeststhe Secretary-General to ensure that any decisions made by the Department of Global Communications, including those justified by budget limitations or reductions, do not undermine the principles of multilingualism;
24
Emphasizes the importance of making use of all the official languages of the United Nations, ensuring their full and equitable treatment in all the activities of the Department of Global Communications, with the aim of eliminating the disparity between the use of English and the use of the five other official languages, and in this regard reaffirms its request that the Secretary-General ensure that the Department has the necessary staffing capacity in all the official languages to undertake all its activities;
25
Also emphasizes the role of the Department of Global Communications in building support for international peace and security, development and human rights for all and the contribution of multilingualism in achieving these goals;
26
Welcomes the ongoing efforts of the Department of Global Communications to enhance multilingualism in all its activities, and stresses the importance of ensuring that the texts of all new public United Nations documents in all six official languages, information materials and all older United Nations documents are made available through the United Nations websites and are accessible to Member States without delay;
27
Encouragesthe Department of Global Communications to continue to use other languages in addition to the official languages, when appropriate, according to the targeted audience, with a view to reaching the widest possible spectrum of audiences and extending the United Nations message to all corners of the world in order to strengthen international support for the activities of the Organization;
28
Welcomes the work done by the network of United Nations information centres, including the United Nations Regional Information Centre, in favour of the publication of United Nations information materials and the translation of important documents into languages other than the official languages of the United Nations, encourages the information centres to continue their important multilingual activities in the interactive and proactive aspects of their work and to develop web pages in local languages, and the Department of Global Communications to provide the necessary resources and technical facilities, with a view to reaching the widest possible spectrum of audiences and extending the United Nations message to all corners of the world in order to strengthen international support for the activities of the Organization, and encourages the continuation of efforts in this regard;
29
Emphasizes the importance of the network of United Nations information centres in enhancing the public image of the United Nations, in disseminating messages on the United Nations to local populations, especially in developing countries, bearing in mind that information in local languages has the strongest impact on local populations, and in mobilizing support for the work of the United Nations at the local level;
30
Welcomes the sustained effort to disseminate information globally by the use of official and non-official languages and traditional means of communication, and in this regard expresses its particular appreciation for the work currently being carried out by United Nations Radio in the six official languages, as well as in non-official languages;
31
Requeststhe Secretary-General to continue his efforts to ensure that, in view of their income-generating nature, guided tours at United Nations Headquarters are consistently available in all six official languages of the United Nations;
32
Welcomes the initiative of the Secretary-General to also offer guided tours at United Nations Headquarters in non-official languages;
33
Notes with interest the cost-neutral initiatives of the Secretariat to produce publications in official and non-official languages, to increase the volume of translated publications and to encourage a multilingual acquisition policy for the libraries of the United Nations, and requests the Secretariat to continue those initiatives;
34
Welcomes the creation of the United Nations digital library, which provides multilingual content, and encourages the United Nations libraries to continue to take into consideration the importance of multilingualism in their activities;
35
Notes with appreciation the efforts of the Department of Global Communications to work at the local level with other organizations and bodies of the United Nations system to enhance the coordination of their communications activities, and urges the Department to encourage the United Nations Communications Group to promote linguistic diversity in its work;
36
Recalls paragraph 71 of its resolution 73/102 B, and encourages the Department of Global Communications to prioritize the development of collaborative arrangements for the digitization of the audiovisual archives of the United Nations while preserving their multilingual character in a cost-neutral manner;
37
Welcomes the Department of Global Communications partnerships with universities for translation services on a pro bono basis, and requests the Secretary-General to grow the number of such partnerships;
38
Requeststhe Secretary-General to continue to exert all efforts to ensure that publications and other information services of the Secretariat, including the United Nations website, social media platforms and the United Nations News Service, contain comprehensive, balanced, objective and equitable information in all official languages about the issues before the Organization and that they maintain editorial independence, impartiality, accuracy and full consistency with resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly;
III.Websites, social media and other web-based communication tools
39
Reaffirms that the United Nations website is an essential tool for Member States, the media, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions and the general public;
40
Also reaffirms the need to achieve full parity among the six official languages on all United Nations websites, welcomes in this regard the renewed efforts of the Secretary-General to conduct a comprehensive review of the United Nations websites, including content discrepancies among the official languages, notes with appreciation the innovative ideas, potential synergies and other cost-neutral measures proposed in the report of the Secretary-General on multilingualism to achieve full parity among the six official languages, and requests the Secretary-General to present an updated version of the review to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;
41
Welcomes the renewed efforts of the Secretary-General to conduct a comprehensive review of the United Nations websites, presenting the status of content in non-official languages, notes with appreciation the innovative ideas, potential synergies and other cost-neutral measures proposed in the report of the Secretary-General on multilingualism to reinforce the broader multilingual development and enrichment of the United Nations websites, as appropriate, and requests the Secretary-General to present an updated version of this review to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;
42
Recalls paragraph 35 of its resolution 71/328, notes with concern the disparity between the English and the non-English languages on the websites maintained by the Secretariat, urges the Secretary-General to lead the efforts of all offices and departments of the Secretariat to take concrete action to address such uneven development, and in this regard calls upon all stakeholders, including the Department of Global Communications, content-providing Secretariat entities and the Office of Information and Communications Technology of the Secretariat, to continue their collaboration, within their respective mandates, so as to achieve full parity among the six official languages on all United Nations websites developed and maintained by all Secretariat entities, in full conformance with the principles of multilingualism and in compliance with the relevant resolutions addressing multilingualism and accessibility for persons with disabilities, by making every effort to translate materials currently available only in English and by providing offices and departments with technological solutions that comply with the principle of parity, from within existing resources;
43
Urgesthe Secretary-General to strengthen his efforts to develop, maintain and update multilingual United Nations websites and the web page of the Secretary-General in all the official languages of the United Nations, from within existing resources and on an equitable basis;
44
Reaffirms its request that the Secretary-General ensure, while maintaining an up-to-date and accurate website and social media, the equitable distribution of financial and human resources within the Department of Global Communications allocated to the United Nations website and social media among all six official languages, with full respect for the needs and specificities of all six languages;
45
Encouragesthe continuation of the live webcasts of public meetings of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council and their respective subsidiary bodies, as well as of the public meetings of the Security Council, with interpretation services, and requests the Secretariat to make every effort to provide full access to archived videos in all official languages of all past open formal United Nations meetings with interpretation services, in strict observance of the principle of full parity of the six official languages of the United Nations, in order to promote transparency and accountability within the Organization, and in that regard requests the Department of Global Communications, the Office of Information and Communications Technology and the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management of the Secretariat to collaborate, on a cost-neutral basis, to explore cost-efficient technological options to ensure equal availability, searchability, completeness and user-friendly presentation of webcast archives in all official languages on the United Nations website, and requests the Secretary-General to report on the results of this collaboration in the next report on multilingualism, to be submitted to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session;
46
Notes with concern that the multilingual development and enrichment of the United Nations website and social media accounts in certain official languages has improved at a much slower rate than expected, and in this regard requests the Department of Global Communications, in coordination with content-providing offices, to advance actions to achieve full parity among the six official languages on the United Nations website, in particular by expediting the filling of vacant posts in some sections;
47
Takes note of section III.B of the report of the Secretary-General, requests the Secretary-General to continue his ongoing efforts in this regard, and urges all content-providing offices in the Secretariat to strengthen their efforts to translate into all official languages all English-language materials and databases posted on the United Nations website in the most practical, efficient and cost-effective manner, from within existing resources;
48
Requeststhe Department of Global Communications, in cooperation with the Office of Information and Communications Technology, to continue its efforts to ensure that technological infrastructures and supportive applications fully support Latin, non-Latin and bidirectional scripts in order to enhance the equality of all official languages on the United Nations website;
49
Recognizes the language landing page of the domain un.org as one solution to enabling multilingualism in United Nations websites, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue to explore innovative solutions to enhance multilingual capabilities for Secretariat websites in a cost-neutral manner;
50
Welcomes the mention of the language skills of the members of the senior leadership in some of the appointment notices issued by the Secretary-General under un.org, and encourages the Secretary-General to include them in those notices, when requested by the appointee;
51
Also welcomes the cooperative arrangements undertaken by the Department of Global Communications with academic institutions to increase the number of web pages available in official and non-official languages, and requests the Secretary-General, in coordination with content-providing offices, to extend such cooperative arrangements, in a cost-effective manner, to all the official languages of the United Nations, bearing in mind the necessity of adherence to United Nations standards and guidelines;
52
Underlines the importance, in the implementation of new communication tools, such as social networks, of taking into account the linguistic dimension in order to assure full parity among the official languages of the Organization;
53
Acknowledges the increasing importance of social media in order to reach the widest possible audience, and as such welcomes the growing popularity of the United Nations official social media accounts across all languages, and encourages the Department of Global Communications to continue to expand, within existing resources, its multilingual presence across outlets by providing timely updates on the work and priorities of the Organization in the six United Nations official languages, as well as additional non-official languages whenever appropriate;
54
Urgesthe Secretariat to keep iSeek up to date in the two working languages of the Secretariat, to continue its efforts to implement iSeek at all duty stations and to develop and implement cost-neutral measures to provide Member States with secure access to the information currently accessible only on the Intranet of the Secretariat;
IV.Documentation and conference services
55
Reiterates its request that the Secretary-General complete the task of uploading all important older United Nations documents to the United Nations website in all six official languages on a priority basis so that those archives are also made available to Member States through that medium;
56
Requeststhe Secretary-General to continue to ensure, through the provision of documentation services and meetings and publishing services under conference management, including high-quality translation and interpretation, effective multilingual communication equally in all the official languages of the United Nations among representatives of Member States in intergovernmental organs and among members of United Nations expert bodies;
57
Encouragesthe Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, within existing resources and upon request, to document policy guidance regarding translation outsourcing and quality standards for use by relevant departments and offices of the Secretariat;
58
Notes the use of innovative translation technologies such as eLUNa that assist in making human translation more efficient and consistent, and encourages, within existing resources, the Secretariat to explore additional technologies for use by United Nations entities with appropriate quality controls;
59
Underlines that all the initiatives on leveraging technology, where applicable, including those introduced on a trial basis, shall comply with the principle of parity among the official languages of the Organization, with a view to preserving and enhancing the quality and scope of the services provided by the Secretariat, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue these efforts as a practical contribution to the achievement of the goals of multilingualism;
60
Reiterates with concern its request that the Secretary-General ensure that the rules concerning the simultaneous distribution of documents in all six official languages are strictly respected as regards both the distribution of printed copies and the posting of parliamentary documentation on the Official Document System and the United Nations website, in accordance with section III, paragraph 5, of its resolution 55/222 of 23 December 2000;
61
Reiterates the need to fully implement and observe rule 55 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, which provides that, during the sessions of the Assembly, the Journal of the United Nations shall be published in the languages of the Assembly, from within existing resources;
62
Underlines that all the initiatives on the evolution of the working methods, including those introduced on a trial basis, shall comply with the principle of parity among the official languages of the Organization, with a view to preserving or enhancing the quality and scope of the services provided by the Secretariat;
V.Human resources management and staff training
63
Recalls its resolution 71/263 of 23 December 2016, in particular paragraph 10 thereof, in which it reaffirmed the need to respect the equality of the two working languages of the Secretariat, reaffirmed the use of additional working languages in specific duty stations as mandated, and in that regard requested the Secretary-General to ensure that job openings specified the need for either of the working languages of the Secretariat, unless the functions of the post required a specific working language;
64
Notes the significant disparities across official languages observed in language requirements in the job openings published on Inspira in 2017, and welcomes in this regard the guidelines on setting language requirements in job openings in the coming biennium, and requests the Secretary-General to report on the progress achieved through the implementation of the guidelines at the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly;
65
Notes with satisfaction the willingness of the Secretariat to encourage staff members, in meetings with interpretation services, to use any of the six official languages of which they have a command;
66
EncouragesUnited Nations staff members to continue to actively use existing training facilities to acquire and enhance their proficiency in one or more of the official languages of the United Nations;
67
Welcomes the invitation of the Secretary-General to all the entities of the Secretariat to build an inventory of staff language skills, while making the best use of existing language databases, as underlined in its resolution 71/328, and encourages the Office of Human Resources of the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance of the Secretariat, in collaboration with the Human Resources Services Division of the Department of Operational Support of the Secretariat, to lead these efforts, in collaboration with the Coordinator for Multilingualism;
68
Requeststhe Secretary-General to continue the efforts to ensure that training opportunities in the six official languages are equally available to all staff;
69
Recalls paragraph 11 of its resolution 71/263, in which it acknowledged that the interaction of the United Nations with the local population in the field was essential and that language skills constituted an important element of the selection and training processes and therefore affirmed that a good command of the official language(s) spoken in the country of residence should be taken into account as an additional asset during those processes;
70
Also recalls its resolution 68/265 of 9 April 2014 on the mobility framework, and invites the Secretary-General to take into account applicable language skills while ensuring full compliance with Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations;
71
Welcomes the inclusion by the Secretary-General of a managerial indicator related to multilingualism in all his compacts with senior managers, including senior managers in the field, requiring that all workplans and, where applicable, mission plans and budgets integrate multilingualism and/or language considerations and that all parliamentary documentation be submitted by authoring entities for multilingual processing on time and within the established word limit, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon at the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly;
72
Stresses that the employment of staff shall continue to be carried out in strict accordance with Article 101 of the Charter and in line with the relevant provisions of General Assembly resolutions;
73
Notes with concern that a number of recruitment handbooks developed by the Office of Human Resources are available only in English, and encourages the Secretary-General to ensure that upcoming reviews and updates, in particular those of the applicant’s manual, are published simultaneously in the working languages;
74
Invitesthe Secretary-General to ensure compliance with the requirement for United Nations staff to have the ability to use one of the working languages of the Secretariat, and encourages the Secretary-General to further the implementation of resolution 2480 B (XXIII);
75
Stresses that the promotion of staff in the Professional and higher categories shall be carried out in strict accordance with Article 101 of the Charter and in line with the provisions of resolution 2480 B (XXIII) and the relevant provisions of resolution 55/258 of 14 June 2001;
76
Welcomes the efforts of the Coordinator for Multilingualism to support the Office of Human Resources of the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance and the Human Resources Services Division of the Department of Operational Support in reviewing how language skills are assessed in staff selection, and requests the Secretary-General to report on progress made in this regard during the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly;
77
Invitesthe Secretary-General to take the appropriate measures to consider the linguistic specificities mentioned in job openings during the composition of interview panels for the employment of United Nations staff, notes the difficulty of constituting panels whose members are proficient in the additional language, and in that regard invites the Secretary-General to consider the possibility of addressing this issue in the medium term;
78
Welcomes the ongoing harmonization exercise that aims to produce a United Nations Language Framework ensuring greater consistency in language learning, teaching and assessment (a) across the entire Secretariat and (b) across all six United Nations official languages, and requests the Secretary-General to report on progress made in this regard during the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly;
79
Recognizes the key contribution of the Language and Communications Programme to promoting multilingualism within the United Nations, supporting the language needs of the Organization at Headquarters and in the field, in collaboration with other Secretariat entities, requests the Secretary-General to ensure full implementation of the existing mandate on linguistic training to continue the delivery of an offer adapted to the need of the United Nations, and also requests the Secretary-General to provide further information in this regard at the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly;
VI.Language services staff
80
Recalls its resolution 66/233 of 24 December 2011, in particular paragraph 7 of section III thereof, reiterates its request that the Secretary-General ensure that all language services are given equal treatment and are provided with equally favourable working conditions and resources, with a view to achieving maximum quality of services, with full respect for the specificities of the six official languages, and in that regard recalls section D, paragraph 11, of its resolution 54/248 of 23 December 1999;
81
Acknowledges the measures taken by the Secretary-General, in accordance with its resolutions, to address the issue of the replacement of retiring staff in the language services, and requests the Secretary-General to maintain and to intensify those efforts, including through the strengthening of cooperation with institutions that train language specialists to meet the needs in the six official languages of the United Nations;
VII.Multilingualism across the three pillars of the United Nations
82
Acknowledges the contribution of multilingualism to the three pillars of the United Nations: peace and security, development and human rights;
83
Notes the work of the Secretary-General in making available multilingual information, technical assistance and training materials related to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue his efforts in this regard;
84
Stresses the importance of proposing United Nations information, technical assistance and training materials, whenever possible, in the local languages of the beneficiary countries, including through locally based United Nations websites;
85
Takes note of the recommendations related to multilingualism contained in the report of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, the subsequent report of the Secretary-General and the report of the Advisory Group of Experts on the Review of the Peacebuilding Architecture;
86
Recalls its resolution 72/304, in which it endorsed the proposals, recommendations and conclusions of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations;
87
Takes note of the ongoing initiatives outlined in the report of the Secretary-General related to field operations, requests the Secretary-General to continue his ongoing efforts in this regard, and recalls its resolution 66/297 of 17 September 2012 without prejudice to Article 101 of the Charter;
88
Urgesthe Secretariat to translate all peacekeeping training documents into the six official languages of the United Nations, from within existing resources, to enable and facilitate their use by all Member States, troop-contributing countries and police-contributing countries, in particular, and by other involved institutions;
89
Requeststhe Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session a comprehensive report on the full implementation of its resolutions on multilingualism;
90
Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-fifth session the item entitled “Multilingualism”.
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