New Delhi: In a significant move, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted an India-sponsored resolution on multilingualism that mentions Hindi, Bangla and Urdu for the first time. The resolution that was passed on Friday encourages the UN to continue disseminating important communications and messages in official as well as non-official languages, including in the Hindi language.
“This year, for the first time, the resolution has a mention of Hindi language. …The resolution also mentions Bangla and Urdu for the first time. We welcome these additions,” India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador TS Tirumurti was quoted by news agency ANI.
“India has been partnering with the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC) since 2018 by providing an extra-budgetary contribution to mainstream and consolidates news and multimedia content in the Hindi language,” he added.
He said multilingualism is recognized as a core value of the UN and expressed gratitude to the Secretary-General for prioritising multilingualism. ‘Hindi @ UN’ project was launched in 2018, in an effort to enhance public outreach of the United Nations in the Hindi language, and to spread greater awareness about global issues among millions of Hindi-speaking populations around the world.
“In this context, I would like to recall UNSC resolution 13(1) adopted In its first session on 1 Feb. 1946, which stated that the United Nations cannot achieve its purposes unless the people of the world are fully informed of its aims and activities,” the Indian envoy said.
He stated that multilingualism is imperative in the United Nations and that India will support the UN to achieve this objective.
Multilingualism is an essential factor in harmonious communication among peoples and an enabler of multilateral diplomacy. It ensures effective participation of all in the Organization’s work, as well as greater transparency, efficiencies, and better outcomes.
“Multilingualism is recognized by the General Assembly as a core value of the Organization. As such, all United Nations Secretariat entities are expected to contribute actively and demonstrate their commitment to this joint endeavour. Multilingualism mandates also call for the mainstreaming of multilingualism throughout the Secretariat,” according to the UN.
Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish are the six official languages of the United Nations; English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat.
(With ANI inputs)