GS Paper - 2 (International Relations)
In a significant initiative, a resolution on multilingualism adopted in the UN General Assembly mentions the Hindi language for the first time, with India emphasising that it is imperative that the United Nations embraces multilingualism in a true sense.
More about resolution
- The resolution adopted in the 193-member UN General Assembly, presented by Andorra and co-sponsored by over 80 nations including India, underlines the responsibility of the United Nations Secretariat towards “integrating multilingualism into its activities, on an equitable basis.”
- It recognises the efforts of the United Nations to use non-official languages, in addition to the six official languages - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish - where appropriate, for communications with specific local target audiences and emphasises the importance of multilingualism in the activities of the United Nations.
- The resolution “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 Portuguese, Hindi, Kiswahili, Persian, Bangla and Urdu, in addition to official languages, in order to promote multilingualism.”
- The resolution also mentions Bangla and Urdu for the first time. India welcomes all these additions.
- Last month, India contributed USD 800,000 towards efforts to continue to expand the use of Hindi in the United Nations.
Flashback
- Since 2018, the UN News in Hindi has been disseminated through UN’s website and social media handles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
- A UN News-Hindi audio bulletin (UN Radio) is released every week. Its weblink is available on the UN Hindi News website.
- The resolution also requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to ensure that multilingualism, as a core value of the United Nations, is not undermined by the measures taken in response to the liquidity situation and the coronavirus disease.
