Multilingualism

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 156 Multilingualism, published in 1995.

What other versions does this mandate have?

15 versions · 1995–2026

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2026).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2026	A/RES/80/310	Multilingualism	2,957	—Compare
2024	A/RES/78/330	Multilingualism	5,746	—Compare
2022	A/RES/76/268	Multilingualism	5,988	—Compare
2019	A/RES/73/346	Multilingualism	5,432	—Compare
2017	A/RES/71/328	Multilingualism	4,417	—Compare

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Programme 1	General assembly and economic and social council affairs and conference management	52

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Programme 1	General assembly and economic and social council affairs and conference management	52	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

11 reports · 2003–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/80/668	Multilingualism report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/330
2024	A/78/790	Multilingualism report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/268
2021	A/75/798	Multilingualism report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/73/346
2019	A/73/761	Multilingualism report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/71/328
2017	A/71/757	Multilingualism report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/69/324

What subjects does this mandate have?

15 subjects

Databases Documents Documents Distribution Equality Information Centres Interpreting Language Services Language Staff Languages Libraries Multilingualism Promotion Publications Recruitment Translation

What’s in this document?

10 operative paragraphs

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure the strict implementation of the resolutions establishing language arrangements for both the official languages and the working languages of the Secretariat, and invites Member States to do likewise;

Recalls that the Secretariat is required, in its relations with Member States, to use the official or working language requested by those States;

Also requests the Secretary-General to ensure that appointment of the staff of the Organization is carried out strictly in accordance with the terms of Article 101 of the Charter and the regulations established by the General Assembly pursuant to that Article and that, upon recruitment, personnel recruited by the different bodies of the Organization have a command of and use at least one of the working languages of the Secretariat or one of the working languages of another body of the Organization, in the case of staff members who are to work for that body and whose tenure of appointment does not exceed two years, and requests him to ensure that the use of another of the six official languages is duly encouraged and taken into account, particularly when promotions and incremental steps are under consideration, in order to ensure linguistic balance within the Organization;

Further requests the Secretary-General to ensure, in particular in the recruitment and promotion of Secretariat staff, equality of the working languages of the Secretariat and of their use;

Stresses the need to ensure, in particular through the training and recruitment of specialists, that the necessary resources are available to guarantee the proper and timely translation of documents into the different official languages of the United Nations;

Recalls the need to ensure the simultaneous distribution of such documents in the official languages;

Also stresses the need to ensure adequate human and financial resources for maintaining the teaching, at all levels, of the official languages and the working languages of the Secretariat;

Further stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of publications and adequate data banks in the different official languages in the libraries and documentation centres of the various bodies;

Urges the delegations of Member States and the Secretariat to endeavour to avoid holding informal meetings without interpretation;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit at its fifty-second session a report on the implementation of the present resolution and particularly on the use of the official languages of the United Nations and the working languages of the Secretariat.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?