Multilingualism

A/RES/80/310View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 125 Multilingualism, published in 2026.

What other versions does this mandate have?

15 versions · 1995–2026

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

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?

8 subjects

Language Services Multilingualism Official Languages Public Information Recruitment Translation Websites Working Languages

What’s in this document?

41 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;⁷

⁷A/80/668.

Emphasizes the importance of the equality of the six official languages of the United Nations and the importance of multilingualism in the activities of the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to integrate multilingualism into the activities of the Secretariat, on an equitable basis;

Takes note of the efforts put forward by the Secretary-General in the context of the UN80 Initiative, reaffirms the central role of Member States in the reform process, and requests the Secretary-General to give due respect for multilingualism in any proposed measure aimed at achieving greater efficiency, including by ensuring the timely and high-quality provision of multilingual conference and translation services in official and working languages of the United Nations;

Calls upon Member States and the Secretary-General to further promote the celebration across the United Nations system of language days dedicated to each of the official languages, including by providing communications on each language day in the six official languages, and to continue to observe International Mother Language Day on 21 February with due solemnity, and also calls upon Member States and the Secretary-General to continue to celebrate, in a cost-neutral manner, across the United Nations system language days dedicated to non‑official languages in line with relevant General Assembly resolutions, in order to raise awareness of the history, culture and use of languages, and promote their preservation and protection, as well as linguistic diversity and multilingualism;

Acknowledges the role of the Coordinator for Multilingualism as the lead United Nations official, acting as an entry point for concerns and queries from Member States and Secretariat entities, and serving as a facilitator to attain a coordinated, consistent and coherent approach in the Secretariat and inspiring all departments and offices by initiating and suggesting innovative solutions to foster an organizational culture conducive to multilingualism,⁸ and encourages the Coordinator to follow up on the objectives for all designated focal points on effective, consistent and coherent implementation of the relevant provisions of the General Assembly resolutions regarding this matter throughout all Secretariat entities and the United Nations system;

⁸See the terms of reference of the Coordinator for Multilingualism (A/71/757, annex II).

Calls upon all departments and offices of the Secretariat to fully support the work of the Coordinator in the implementation of the relevant mandates on multilingualism, and welcomes the continued role of the Coordinator, with the support of the secretariat of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, with a view to promoting a more coordinated approach to multilingualism across the United Nations system;

Emphasizes the importance of the strategic vision for multilingualism and the areas of action presented in the United Nations Strategic Framework on Multilingualism, published on 27 March 2024 in the six official languages, and requests the Secretary-General to continue its full and effective implementation and to issue the relevant administrative and operational guidelines for this purpose;

Recalls that paragraph 14 of resolution 78/330 has not yet been implemented, and requests the Secretary-General to follow up on this matter;

Notes with serious concern the impact of the measures taken by the Secretary-General in response to the current liquidity situation on the provision of language services, including multilingual conference services, the management of meetings and the recruitment of new staff to fill vacant posts in the six language services, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue to take measures to ensure that multilingualism and the equality of the six official languages are not undermined in all duty stations, as well as to make additional efforts to provide conference management to meetings contained in the calendar of conferences of the United Nations and to report on the measures taken and results achieved in the next report on multilingualism;

Requests the Secretary-General to intensify efforts to ensure the full implementation of existing mandates in the area of multilingualism, including by the Department of Global Communications, the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance and the Department of Operational Support;

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 are available only in English, and encourages the Secretary-General to ensure that relevant recruitment materials, in particular those of the applicant’s manual, are published simultaneously in the working languages;

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,⁹ and encourages the Secretary-General to continue the efforts in this regard;

⁹Resolution 70/1.

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 to the Secretary-General to ensure that the Department has the necessary staffing capacity in all the official language units to undertake all their activities, including the appropriate distribution to that end;

Regrets that, to date, the meetings coverage and press releases, as well as Security Council press statements, are issued only in English and French, and highlights the importance of these to be issued in all official languages, in a cost-neutral manner, in full respect of the principle of parity of all six official languages, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to explore a model to provide meetings coverage and press releases of the Security Council in all six official languages, in line with relevant General Assembly resolutions, and encourages the Secretary-General to do so using emerging technologies, including machine translation and artificial intelligence-assisted drafting tools, under adequate human oversight and with appropriate quality control;

Takes note of the statements delivered in non‑official languages of the United Nations, and requests the Secretary-General to include in future reports on multilingualism information regarding the use of non‑official languages in the meetings of the Organization;

Recognizes the cultural, political and diplomatic importance of non‑official languages, for representativeness and effective participation in the work of the United Nations, reaffirming that any representative may deliver a statement in a language other than the official languages of the General Assembly in accordance with rule 53 of the rules of procedure of the Assembly, and encouraging the further implementation of this rule, invites Member States to provide translations or summaries of statements delivered in non‑official languages, and invites the Secretary-General to explore cost-neutral options, including the use of technology, partnerships and voluntary arrangements, to facilitate wider accessibility of such statements;

Welcomes the work done by the network of United Nations information centres in publishing information materials and translating important documents into non‑official languages, disseminating messages to local populations, especially in developing countries, as well as mobilizing support at the local level, and stresses the importance of presenting information in a multilingual format and, whenever possible, in the local languages of the beneficiary countries, including through locally based United Nations websites;

Also welcomes the continued efforts of the Department of Global Communications to disseminate information globally through traditional and digital means, including United Nations Radio and flagship social media accounts, and requests the Department to continue to ensure that such efforts are carried out in all six official languages, while continuing to use non‑official languages, including Bangla, Hindi, Kiswahili, Persian, Portuguese and Urdu, as appropriate to targeted audiences, and to continue its efforts to mobilize adequate resources, including by exploring innovative financing options and through voluntary contributions for these purposes;

Notes that other widely spoken languages are used in the Organization, and encourages continued dialogue on practical, gradual and inclusive approaches to strengthening multilingualism at the United Nations that shall not affect the current arrangements and financing of the six official languages;

Reaffirms the crucial role of the Department of Global Communications in addressing information integrity, and encourages the Secretary-General to ensure that multilingualism is integrated into efforts taken in that regard and to report thereon in the context of the upcoming review of the Department;

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;

Decides to continue to limit the practice of granting waivers when establishing and maintaining websites on the un.org domain, encourages the Secretary-General to comply with multilingualism provisions on the waivers and their expiration after a maximum period of six months, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to include in reports the number of waivers granted and a follow-up on this matter;

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;

Recalls 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, and for follow-up on this issue;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure effective multilingual communication in all the official languages, through the provision of documentation services and meetings, and publishing services under conference management, including high-quality translation and interpretation, among representatives of Member States in intergovernmental organs and members of United Nations expert bodies;

Notes the risks and benefits inherent to the use of artificial intelligence in the provision of conference services, especially the communication and reputational risks associated with the errors of unedited machine translation, underlines the irreplaceable role of the United Nations language services, and emphasizes that all initiatives on leveraging technology, where and if applicable, must be implemented in a manner consistent with the principle of parity among the official languages and the Organization’s commitment to multilingualism, and encourages the Secretary-General to make further responsible use of artificial intelligence-enabled translation tools to support translation, while ensuring adequate human oversight and appropriate quality control in the provision of multilingual online content, in line with relevant General Assembly resolutions;

Reaffirms the importance of further ensuring 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;

Invites the Chairs of the Main Committees of the General Assembly to ensure that the reports of the Secretary-General are formally introduced for the consideration of Member States only if they are available in all six official languages, and requests the Chairs of the Main Committees to fully respect multilingualism;

Requests the Secretary-General 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;

Welcomes the publication of the summaries of the judgments, advisory opinions and orders of the International Court of Justice in all six official languages, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure their timely availability in all official languages;

Invites the International Court of Justice, within existing resources, to continue to strengthen the multilingual dimension of its public information activities, including its website, bearing in mind the growing demand for content in other official languages, including Spanish;

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

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;

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 considered as an additional asset during those processes;

Recognizes the 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 the next report;

Reiterates its requests that the Secretary-General ensure that all language services are given equitable treatment, with a view to achieving maximum quality of services, with full respect for the specificities of the six official languages, giving particular significance to the accuracy of translation and interpretation, and fully respecting the linguistic norms and standards of each official language;

Recalls all relevant resolutions endorsing proposals, recommendations and conclusions of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, and urges the Secretary-General to explore the use of technology to support translation, as appropriate and within existing mandates and resourcing, to translate peacekeeping training documents into the six official languages of the United Nations, to enable and facilitate their use by all Member States, in particular troop- and police-contributing countries, and by other involved institutions;

Welcomes with appreciation the launching of the fully redesigned procurement website in 2025 and the roll-out of the SAP Ariba e-tendering system, which allows for the uploading of documents in any of the six official languages, including statements of requirements and vendor bid submissions, encourages the Secretary-General to continue to maintain actively these tools within existing resources, and further ensuring that procurement business seminars are conducted in the six official languages, and requests the Secretary-General to report on the progress made in updating the procurement brochure in the six official languages;

Welcomes the efforts made by international organizations based on a shared language to increase their cooperation with the United Nations regarding multilingualism;¹⁰

¹⁰See, for example, resolution 79/331 on cooperation between the United Nations and the International Organization of la Francophonie and resolution 79/265 on cooperation between the United Nations and the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries.

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its eighty-third session a comprehensive report on the full implementation of its resolutions on multilingualism, with data disaggregated by language, where available, 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 eighty-third session the item entitled “Multilingualism”.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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