UN communications to now be addressed also in Bangla, Hindi and Urdu
In a significant move for Indian languages, the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, June 10 adopted a resolution co-sponsored by 80 countries, including India, that asks the international body to use both official and non-official languages in its essential communications.
Among the languages that would now be increasingly used, as a result of the resolution’s adoption, are Bangla (or Bengali), Hindi and Urdu from India, along with Kiswahili, Persian and Portuguese.
This is in addition to the usage of the six official languages—English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese—and not in exclusion of them. English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat.
The resolution, titled ‘Multilingualism’, mentions that multilingualism is a “core value” of the UN, which “contributes to the achievement of the goals” of the organisation, “as set out in Article 1 of the Charter”.
However, Kanwal Sibal, a former Indian foreign secretary said, set out a basic problem while talking to ThePrint, which must be overcome: “The real issue will revolve around finding the funding for translators and writers to ensure that the new forms of communication are disseminated in these languages.”
The move at multilingualism, the resolution noted, is for “promoting, protecting and preserving diversity of languages and cultures globally” and also for “improving the efficiency, performance and transparency” of the United Nations.
