UN mentions Hindi, other sub-continental languages for first time

New Delhi, June 11

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted an India co-sponsored resolution on multilingualism that mentions three major languages of the subcontinent—Hindi, Urdu and Bengali—for the first time.

The resolution passed on Friday encourages the UN to continue disseminating important communications and messages in official as well as in non-official languages, including in the three languages as well as in Portuguese, Kiswahili and Persian.

The resolution calls upon the vast UN system to promote multilingualism, and encourages dissemination of material in all the six official languages, as well as in non-official languages “whenever appropriate’’,

The UN has six official languages—English, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and French—the addition of Hindi, Bangla, and Urdu will instrumentalise and institutionalise their usage as mediums for disseminating UN information, said T.S. Tirumurti, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York.

Ambassador Tirumurti added that India welcomed the first time mention of Hindi, Bangla, and Urdu as languages for communicating important information and messages of the UN.

But a deeper implementation is some way off as the UN is still struggling to implement parity in the six official languages and the impression is that there is more use of English and French that are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. In this respect, the resolution spoke of full implementation of all resolutions establishing language arrangements for the six UN official languages. It also noted that the availability of UN documents in relevant official languages is “limited’’ in some areas of Secretariat activity.

“Multilingualism is an enabler of multilateral diplomacy and that it contributes to the promotion of the values of the UN,’’ said the resolution co-sponsored by over 40 countries including Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The mention will mean that the UN will be persuaded to transmit some of the important information relating to its work in the six non-official languages. But social media parity in the six official languages is still being pressed upon by the Russian, Chinese, Arabic and Spanish sides.