Multilingualism

A/RES/78/330View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 124Multilingualism, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

14 versions · 1995–2024

2024A/RES/78/330MultilingualismLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/268MultilingualismCompare with previous version
2019A/RES/73/346MultilingualismCompare with previous version
2017A/RES/71/328MultilingualismCompare with previous version
2015A/RES/69/324MultilingualismCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

2 entities

A dot marks an entity citing this document in its “Mandates and background” narrative rather than only its Legislative mandates list. Many do both.

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

10 topics

Language Instruction Language Services Multilingualism Official Languages Public Information Recruitment Social Media Translation Websites Working Languages

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2026.

2026A/80/668Multilingualism report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

92 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;

Supports the approach presented by the Secretary-General to integrate multilingualism, as a core value of the Organization, into the activities of the Secretariat, on an equitable basis;

Emphasizes the paramount importance of the equality of the six official languages of the United Nations;

I.Multilingualism in general and the role of the Secretariat

Notes with appreciation the publication of the United Nations Strategic Framework on Multilingualism on 27 March 2024, in the six official languages, the first of its kind within the Secretariat and system-wide;

Notes with concern the impact of the measures taken by the Secretary-General in response to the current liquidity situation and the residual impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the provision of language services and the management of meetings, including the recruitment of new staff to fill vacant posts in the six official language services, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to make efforts to ensure that multilingualism, as a fundamental value of the Organization, is not undermined;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure adequate human oversight and appropriate quality control in the provision of multilingual online content through translation tools in order to effectively leverage the benefits that they might offer, while taking into account the communication and reputational risks of the errors inherent to unedited machine translation;

Requests the Secretariat to continue to provide procedural notes, statements and remarks for the Presidents of the main organs, the Chairs of the Main Committees of the General Assembly, the Chairs of their subsidiary bodies and for representatives of the Secretariat, in the United Nations official language spoken by the presiding officer of the meeting;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that further updates of the Procurement Manual are reflected in all six official language versions in an appropriate time frame, and welcomes the procurement business seminars conducted to date in various languages;

Notes that a high proportion of calls for bids are published in English, and therefore requests the Secretariat to make use of existing multilingualism policies to facilitate the participation of local vendors in the United Nations procurement bidding process;

Also notes that United Nations Development Business (Department of Global Communications) published 30,425 procurement notices in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish in 2021 and 2022, and requests United Nations Development Business to update the information in the next report of the Secretary-General on multilingualism on how to ensure the publication of procurement notices in the six official languages of the United Nations, notes that SAP Ariba Sourcing will support multiple languages, and further encourages the testing of the new tool in the six official languages of the United Nations in a timely manner;

Recalls with appreciation the appointment by the Secretary-General of the Coordinator for Multilingualism, who is responsible for the overall coordination of multilingualism Secretariat-wide and facilitates implementation thereof, and 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;

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;

Requests the Secretary-General to implement the United Nations Strategic Framework on Multilingualism;

Recognizes the need to strengthen the human resources capacity of the Office of the Coordinator for Multilingualism in order to facilitate successful implementation of the United Nations Strategic Framework on Multilingualism across the Secretariat in a timely manner, and requests the Secretary-General to submit a proposal in this regard, including on the revised estimates for 2025 and the proposed programme budget for 2026 and thereafter, in accordance within existing procedures, in particular rule 153 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly;

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, notes with satisfaction that the Coordinator invited all entities to establish objectives for their designated focal points in 2023 with a view to establishing an operational action plan in favour of multilingualism, and encourages the Coordinator to follow up on the establishment of objectives for all designated focal points;

Requests the Secretary-General to issue the relevant administrative and operational guidelines for the implementation of the United Nations Strategic Framework on Multilingualism;

Emphasizes the importance of the strategic vision for multilingualism and the areas of action presented in the United Nations Strategic Framework on Multilingualism, and requests the Coordinator for Multilingualism and all Secretariat entities to contribute to the implementation of the Framework;

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;

Welcomes the efforts of the Coordinator for Multilingualism to encourage all Secretariat entities to promote the celebration 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, 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, in a cost-neutral manner;

Welcomes with appreciation that in 2022 the United Nations Secretary-General Award in the category of multilingualism, aimed at honouring a staff member or team for their best practices and innovative approaches to fostering multilingualism at the United Nations, was received by the United Nations News team;

Welcomes the efforts made by international organizations based on a shared language to increase their cooperation with the United Nations regarding multilingualism;

Calls upon Member States and the Secretariat to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world, including by observing International Mother Language Day on 21 February with due solemnity;

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;

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;

Recalls paragraph 9 of its resolution 76/242 of 24 December 2021, and welcomes with appreciation the continued measures taken by the Secretary-General to implement multilingualism within the system of administration of justice;

II.Role of the Department of Global Communications in multilingualism

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;

Requests the Secretary-General to intensify his efforts to ensure the full implementation of existing mandates in the area of multilingualism as they relate to information and communication, and in this regard requests the Secretariat to explore the opportunities offered by the new information and communications technologies;

Also requests the 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;

Recalls paragraphs 51 and 52 of its resolution 76/237, and regrets the delays in the elimination of the disparity between the use of English and the use of the five other official languages in the archiving of official meetings webcasts by the Department of Global Communications;

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;

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 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;

Regrets that to date the meetings coverage and daily press releases are issued only in English and French, and highlights the importance of these to be issued in all official languages, in full respect of the principle of parity of all six official languages;

Also regrets that to date Security Council press statements are issued only in English and French and highlights the importance of these being issued in all official languages, in full respect of the principle of parity, and requests the Secretary-General to study the feasibility of issuing the press statements in all official languages and to report thereon in the context of the upcoming review of the Department of Global Communications;

Encourages the Department of Global Communications to continue to use other languages in addition to the official languages, when appropriate, according to the targeted audiences, without preferences and in line with the relevant General Assembly resolutions, 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;

Notes with appreciation that, following the launch in 2021 of the English version of the new United Nations Web TV website, the Department of Global Communications launched the versions in the other five official languages in early 2023, thereby resulting in live multilingual streaming coverage of United Nations meetings and events;

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 and social media accounts 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;

Encourages the Department of Global Communications to continue to disseminate through its flagship social media accounts original content in all six official languages as well as in Hindi, Kiswahili and Portuguese, and in this regard requests the Department to continue its efforts to mobilize adequate resources, including by exploring innovative financing options as well as voluntary contributions to include more languages outside the six official languages of the United Nations;

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;

Welcomes the sustained effort to disseminate information globally by using traditional means of communication in official languages and, in addition to them, non-official languages, and in this regard expresses its particular appreciation for the work currently being carried out by United Nations Radio;

Recalls paragraph 111 of its resolution 78/80 B, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to support those efforts;

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;

Acknowledges the role of the libraries of the United Nations in the promotion of multilingualism;

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 multilingualism in its work;

Expresses appreciation for the efforts of the Department of Global Communications in highlighting some recent important communications and messages of the Secretary-General in non-official languages, such as Bangla, Hindi, Kiswahili, Persian, Portuguese and Urdu, in addition to official languages, in order to promote multilingualism, and encourages the Department to disseminate them in all six official languages, as well as in non-official languages whenever appropriate and in line with relevant General Assembly resolutions;

Recalls paragraph 116 of its resolution 78/80 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;

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;

Requests the 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;

Reaffirms the crucial role of the Department of Global Communications in addressing the spread of misinformation, disinformation and information manipulation, and in supporting the efforts of the United Nations system to eradicate hate speech, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that multilingualism is integrated into efforts taken in that regard and report thereon in the context of the upcoming review of the Department of Global Communications;

III.Websites, social media and other web-based communication tools

Reaffirms that the United Nations website and social media are an essential tool for Member States, the media, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions and the general public;

Stresses the need to treat the six official languages on the websites, social media and other web-based communication tools equally, and decides to limit the practice of granting waivers from the Department of Global Communications to Secretariat entities when establishing and maintaining websites on the un.org domain to a maximum period of six months and stresses the importance of including in the next report of the Secretary-General the number of waivers granted and follow-up on the websites after the waiver has expired;

Welcomes the renewed efforts of the Secretary-General to conduct a comprehensive review of the United Nations websites, including content discrepancies among the official languages, and notes with appreciation the innovative ideas, potential synergies and other measures proposed in the report of the Secretary-General on multilingualism to achieve full parity among the six official languages;

Also 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, and 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;

Recalls paragraph 49 of its resolution 76/268, 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;

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, to ensure engagement, with full respect for the needs and specificities of all six languages;

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;

Requests the 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;

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;

Emphasizes the importance for the Secretary-General to ensure that the Department of Global Communications guidelines on minimum standards for multilingualism, which serve as a guide for website developers and managers, ensure the full and equitable use of all the official languages of the United Nations in websites regardless of the domain;

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;

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 to all the official languages of the United Nations, bearing in mind the necessity of adherence to United Nations standards and guidelines;

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;

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 strengthen multilingual diversity in social media activity;

IV.Documentation and conference services

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;

Requests the 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;

Notes the use of innovative online language tools and translation technologies such as eLUNa that assist in making human translation more efficient and consistent, and the United Nations Terminology Database (UNTERM), and encourages the Secretariat to explore additional technologies for use by United Nations entities with appropriate quality controls;

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;

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;

Acknowledges the implementation and observance of 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;

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;

Reiterates that the satisfaction of Member States is a key performance indicator in conference management and conference services;

V.Human resources management and staff training

Recalls its resolution 77/278 of 18 April 2023, in particular paragraph 34 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;

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;

Encourages United 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;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue the efforts to ensure that training opportunities in the six official languages are equally available to all staff and to continue the efforts to expand professional development opportunities provided to staff, including language training and training in the six official languages, to meet the workforce capacity needs of the Secretariat;

Recalls paragraph 11 of its resolution 71/263 of 23 December 2016, 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;

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;

Stresses that the employment of staff shall continue to be carried out in strict accordance with Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations and in line with the relevant provisions of General Assembly resolutions;

Notes with concern that a number of recruitment handbooks developed by the Office of Human Resources of the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance of the Secretariat 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;

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 of the Secretariat in reviewing how language skills are assessed in staff selection;

Invites the 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;

Welcomes the finalization of the United Nations Language Framework and its publication in the Secretary-General’s bulletin entitled “United Nations Language Framework and levels of language competence”, which ensures greater consistency in language learning, teaching and assessment across the entire Secretariat and across all six United Nations official languages, and requests the Secretary-General to apply it accordingly;

Recognizes the key contribution of the Language and Communications Training Unit 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 eightieth session of the General Assembly;

VI.Language services staff

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;

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

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;

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;

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;

Recalls its resolution 75/281 of 24 May 2021, in which it endorsed the proposals, recommendations and conclusions of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations;

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;

Urges the 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;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its eightieth session a comprehensive report on the full implementation of its resolutions on multilingualism, including on the implementation of the United Nations Strategic Framework on Multilingualism and further follow-up on the topics of the current report of the Secretary-General;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its eightieth session the item entitled “Multilingualism”.

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