The United Nations (UN) is widely recognized as the world’s largest international organization. When the UN was created in 1945 after World War II, it succeeded the League of Nations and currently consists of 193 member states. Its primary functions are to maintain international peace and security, advocate for the global population’s well being, and act as the nexus of international cooperation to achieve these goals.
Naturally, an international organization such as this faces one of the largest obstacles inherent in globalization: language barriers. When the contents of resolutions impact millions across the globe, it’s imperative that leaders can clearly communicate the topic at hand.
Therefore, the UN has established a specific set of languages to conduct business in: the current official and working languages of the UN are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. According to the UN’s official website, official languages are “the languages in which all official United Nations documents are made available” whereas working languages are “used for internal communications among staff”. While some branches may have a specific selection of languages (for instance, only English and French are the working languages of the Secretariat), these six languages ultimately facilitate the everyday workings of the UN.
Historically, however, not all six languages were implemented equally. In 1946, the General Assembly established Chinese, French, English, Russian, and Spanish as official languages, and only English and French as working languages. While a more comprehensive history can be found on the UN’s official website, over the next decade, the remaining official languages gradually became working languages as well until it closely resembled the conventions held today. And in 1982 (although Arabic had slowly become an official language of a select number of branches over the past decade), a Security Council resolution finally included Arabic as an official and working language.
These official six languages are indubitably the face of the UN. Nonetheless, other languages have their space in the UN’s workings as well. For instance, delegates can make statements using a non-official language; when this happens, the delegation must provide either an interpretation or a written text of the statement in one of the official languages. So while the six official languages must ultimately be adhered to, multilingualism is nonetheless very much prominent within the organization.
One unique feature of language in the UN is that the Department of Global Communications has established “language days” for each of the six official languages. There is one day per language: Arabic Language Day (18 December), Chinese Language Day (20 April), English Language Day (23 April), French Language Day (20 March), Russian Language Day (6 June), and Spanish Language Day (23 April). By promoting the equal use of all these languages throughout the organization, these days intend to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity.
The UN is one of the world’s largest employers of language professionals, with hundreds stationed in New York, Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Interpreters, translators, editors, verbatim reporters, terminologists, reference assistants, copy preparers, and proofreaders, among other occupations, act as indispensable behind-the-scenes workers that ensure the UN’s smooth functioning.