Official languages of the United Nations - wikipedia Official languages of the United Nations The official languages of the United Nations are the six languages that are used in UN meetings, and in which all official UN documents are written. In alphabetical order, they are : Arabic ( Modern Standard Arabic ) Mandarin ( Simplified Chinese characters ) English ( British English with Oxford spelling ) French Russian Spanish Contents 1 Description 2 History 3 New proposed languages 3.1 Bengali 3.2 Hindi 3.3 Portuguese 3.4 Turkish 4 Coordinator for multilingualism 5 Language Days at the UN 6 UN specialized agencies 7 Parallels with other multilingual institutions 8 See also 9 References 10 External links Description These languages are used at meetings of various UN organs, particularly the General Assembly ( Article 51 of its Rules of Procedure ), the Economic and Social Council, and the Security Council ( Article 41 of its Rules of Procedure ). Each representative of a country may speak in any one of these six languages, or may speak in any language and provide interpretation into one of the six official languages. The UN provides simultaneous interpretation from the official language into the other five official languages, via the United Nations Interpretation Service. The six official languages are also used for the dissemination of official documents. Until a document is available in all six official languages, it is not published. Generally, the texts in each of the six languages are equally authoritative. The United Nations has drawn criticism for relying too heavily on English, and not enough on the other five official languages. Spanish - speaking member nations formally brought this to the attention of the Secretary - General in 2001. Secretary - General Kofi Annan then responded that full parity of the six official languages was unachievable within current budgetary restraints, but he nevertheless attached great importance to improving the linguistic balance. In 2008 and 2009, resolutions of the General Assembly have urged the Secretariat to respect the parity of the six official languages, especially in the dissemination of public information. On 8 June 2007, resolutions concerning human resources management at the UN, the General Assembly had emphasized `` the paramount importance of the equality of the six official languages of the United Nations '' and requested that the Secretary - General `` ensure that vacancy announcements specified the need for either of the working languages of the Secretariat, unless the functions of the post required a specific working language ''. The Secretary - General 's most recent report on multilingualism was issued on 4 October 2010. In response, on 19 July 2011, the General Assembly adopted Resolution No. A / RES / 65 / 311 on multilingualism, calling on the Secretary - General, once again, to ensure that all six official languages are given equally favourable working conditions and resources. The resolution noted with concern that the multilingual development of the UN website had improved at a much slower rate than expected. The six official languages spoken at the UN are the first or second language of 2.8 billion people on the planet, less than half of the world population. The six languages are official languages in more than half the countries in the world ( about one hundred ). History The Charter of the United Nations, its 1945 constituent document, did not expressly provide for official languages of the UN. The Charter was enacted in five languages ( Chinese, French, Russian, English, and Spanish ) and provided ( in Article 111 ) that the five texts are equally authoritative. In 1946, the first session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted rules of procedure concerning languages that purported to apply to `` all the organs of the United Nations, other than the International Court of Justice '', setting out five official languages and two working languages ( English and French ). The following year, the second session of the General Assembly adopted permanent rules of procedure, Resolution 173 ( II ). The part of those rules relating to language closely followed the 1946 rules, except that the 1947 rules did not purport to apply to other UN organs, just the General Assembly. Meanwhile, a proposal had been in the works to add Spanish as a third working language in addition to English and French. This was adopted in Resolution 262 ( III ), passed on 11 December 1948. In 1968, Russian was added as a working language of the General Assembly so that, of the GA 's five official languages, four ( all but Chinese ) were working. In 1973, the General Assembly made Chinese a working language and added Arabic as both an official language and working language of the GA. Thus all six official languages were also working languages. Arabic was made an official and working language of `` the General Assembly and its Main Committees '', whereas the other five languages had status in all GA committees and subcommittees ( not just the main committees ). The Arab members of the UN had agreed to pay the costs of implementing the resolution, for three years. In 1980, the General Assembly got rid of this final distinction, making Arabic an official and working language of all its committees and subcommittees, as of 1 January 1982. At the same time, the GA requested the Security Council to include Arabic among its official and working languages, and the Economic and Social Council to include Arabic among its official languages, by 1 January 1983. As of 1983, the Security Council ( like the General Assembly ) recognized six official and working languages : Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. In the Economic and Social Council, as of 1992, there are six official languages ( Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish ) of which three are working languages ( English, French, and Spanish ). Later, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian were added as working languages in the Economic and Social Council. The United Nations Secretariat uses two working languages : English and French. All Secretaries - General have had a working knowledge of both languages. New proposed languages See also : International Mother Language Day Bengali Bengali is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, ranking seventh. In April 2009 Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina argued in front of the United Nations General Assembly that the Bengali language should be made one of the official languages of the UN. This was backed by a resolution adopted unanimously by the assembly of the Indian state of West Bengal in December, and support was also given by the states of Assam and Tripura. Hindi Hindi is the official language of India and Fiji. It has more than 550 million speakers in India alone, of whom 422 million are native, 98.2 million are second language speakers, and 31.2 million are third language speakers. Hindi is the lingua franca of the majority of Indians with its importance as a global language increasing day by day. Hindi is the fourth most - spoken first language in the world, after Mandarin, Spanish and English. The World Hindi Secretariat is headquartered in Mauritius and the organization seeks to promote Hindi as an international language. Hindi Divas is an annual day in India on the promotion of Hindi in India. In 2007, it was reported that the government would `` make immediate diplomatic moves to seek the status of an official language for Hindi at the United Nations ''. According to a 2009 press release from its Ministry of External Affairs, the Government of India has been `` working actively '' to have Hindi recognized as an official language of the UN. In 2015, Nepal 's Vice President Parmananda Jha stated his firm support for the inclusion of Hindi as an official language of the UN. Portuguese Many Lusophones have advocated for greater recognition of their language, being the sixth most spoken language in the world and spread across four continents : Portugal in Europe, Brazil in South America ( the largest lusophone nation ), Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea - Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe in Africa and Timor - Leste, Macau in Asia. Portuguese is still spoken by a few thousand people in the former Portuguese colonies of Goa and Daman and Diu in India, and is an official language in nine countries. In 2008 the President of Portugal announced that the then eight leaders of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries ( CPLP ) had agreed to take the necessary steps to make Portuguese an official language. This followed a decision by Portugal 's legislators to adopt a standardization of Portuguese spelling. Turkish In September 2011, during a meeting with UN Secretary - General Ban Ki - moon, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed a desire to see Turkish become an official UN language. Turkic family languages, among which there is high mutual intelligibility, are spoken in Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria and Cyprus. Coordinator for Multilingualism In a 1999 resolution, the General Assembly requested the Secretary - General to `` appoint a senior Secretariat official as coordinator of questions relating to multilingualism throughout the Secretariat ''. The first such coordinator was Federico Riesco of Chile, appointed on 6 September 2000. Following Riesco 's retirement, Miles Stoby of Guyana was appointed Coordinator for Multilingualism, effective 6 September 2001. In 2003, Secretary - General Kofi Annan appointed Shashi Tharoor of India as Coordinator for Multilingualism. This responsibility was in addition to Tharoor 's role as Under - Secretary - General for Communications and Public Information, head of the Department of Public Information. The current coordinator for multilingualism is Catherine Pollard of Guyana. She replaces Kiyo Akasaka of Japan, who was also Under - Secretary - General for Communications and Public Information. Language days at the UN In 2010, the UN 's Department of Public Information announced an initiative of six `` language days '' to be observed throughout the year, one for each official language, with the goal of celebrating linguistic diversity and learning about the importance of cross-cultural communication. The days and their historical significance are : UN Arabic Language Day : 18 December ( the date on which the United Nations General Assembly designated Arabic as the sixth official language of the United Nations in 1973 ) UN Chinese Language Day : first celebrated 12 November ; now set on 20 April ( `` to pay tribute to Cang Jie '' ) UN English Language Day : 23 April ( `` the date traditionally observed as the birthday of William Shakespeare '' ) UN French Language Day : 20 March ( corresponding to the Journée internationale de la Francophonie ) UN Russian Language Day : 6 June ( the birthday of Alexander Pushkin ) UN Spanish Language Day : 12 October ( celebrated in the Spanish - speaking world as `` Día de la Hispanidad '' ; compare Columbus Day ) UN specialized agencies UN independent agencies have their own sets of official languages that sometimes are different from that of the principal UN organs. For example, the General Conference of UNESCO has nine official languages including Hindi, Italian, and Portuguese. The Universal Postal Union has just one official language, French. IFAD has four official languages : Arabic, English, French, and Spanish. Parallels with other multilingual institutions The next largest international grouping after the UN is the Commonwealth of Nations which is exclusively English speaking. All other international bodies in commerce, transport and sport have tended to the adoption of one or a few languages as the means of communication. This is usually English, closely followed by French ( see : list of international organisations which have French as an official language ). Regional groups have adopted what is common to other elements of their ethnic or religious background. Standard Arabic is usually adopted across Muslim nation groups. Most of non-Arab Africa is either Francophone or Anglophone because of their imperial past, but there is also a Lusophone grouping of countries for the same reason. See also Language portal United Nations portal Official language List of official languages List of official languages by institution List of languages by number of native speakers Languages of the European Union International Mother Language Day League of Nations - Languages and Symbols The Interpreter Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant # Warning_messages_for_future_humans References Jump up ^ Haizhou Li ( 12 December 2006 ). Advances in Chinese Spoken Language Processing. World Scientific. p. 525. ISBN 978 - 981 - 277 - 296 - 1. Jump up ^ `` Search Tips ''. United Nations. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 24. Additionally, the United Nations uses the British spelling of English words and Simplified Chinese. Jump up ^ `` Spelling ''. United Nations Editorial Manual Online. Retrieved 30 October 2015 ; `` Search Tips ''. United Nations. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 24. The UN standard is UK English. British spelling is used ( i.e. colour, labour, programme )... Additionally, the United Nations uses the British spelling of English words and Simplified Chinese. Jump up ^ `` Plea to UN : ' More Spanish please ' ''. BBC News. 2001 - 06 - 21. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 25. Jump up ^ `` Letter dated 18 June 2001 '' ( PDF ). 2001 - 06 - 18. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 26. Jump up ^ Resolution 63 / 100 Archived 14 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Questions relating to information ( 5 December 2008 ). Jump up ^ Resolution 63 / 306 Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Multilingualism ( 9 September 2009 ). Jump up ^ Resolution A / RES / 61 / 266 Archived 15 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Multilingualism 8 June 2007 Jump up ^ `` Multilingualism ''. United Nations Secretary - General. 2010 - 10 - 04. UN Doc ID A / 65 / 488. Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ `` Adopting Resolution on Multilingualism, General Assembly Emphasizes Importance of Equality Among Six Official United Nations Languages '' ( Press release ). UN Department of Public Information. 2011 - 07 - 19. UN Doc ID GA / 11116. Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ General Assembly Resolution 2 ( I ) Archived 9 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Rules of Procedure Concerning Languages, 1 February 1946. ^ Jump up to : `` Preparation of Multilingual Treaties : Memorandum by the Secretariat '' ( PDF ). 1966. p. 4. Retrieved 2013 - 10 - 21. Jump up ^ Resolution 262 ( III ) Archived 9 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Robert Reford ( 1968 - 12 - 18 ). `` Russian to be included as UN working language ''. Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 25. Jump up ^ Resolution 2479 ( XXIII ) Archived 13 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Inclusion of Russian among the working languages of the General Assembly ( amendment to rule 51 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly ) and question of including Russian and Spanish among the working languages of the Security Council ( 21 December 1968 ) Jump up ^ Resolution 3189 ( XXVIII ) Archived 13 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Inclusion of Chinese among the working languages of the General Assembly and the Security Council ( 18 December 1973 ) Jump up ^ Resolution 3190 ( XXVIII ) Archived 13 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Inclusion of Arabic among the official and the working languages of the General Assembly and its Main Committees ( 18 December 1973 ) Jump up ^ Resolution 3191 ( XXVIII ) Archived 13 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Inclusion of Chinese among the working languages of the General Assembly, its committees and its subcommittees and inclusion of Arabic among the official and the working languages of the General Assembly and its Main Committees : amendments to rules 51 to 59 of the rules of procedure of the Assembly Jump up ^ Resolution 35 / 219 Use of Arabic in the subsidiary organs of the General Assembly, in the Security Council and in the Economic and Social Council : amendments to rules 51, 52, 54 and 56 of the rules of procedure of the Assembly ( 17 December 1980 ). Jump up ^ Provisional Rules of Procedure of the Security Council Archived 2 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Rules 41 to 47. Jump up ^ Rules of Procedure of the Economic and Social Council rules 32 to 35. Jump up ^ ( 1 ) Archived 14 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ `` Ethnologue ''. SIL International. Jump up ^ `` Bengali ' should be UN language ' ''. BBC News. Retrieved 2 January 2014. Jump up ^ ORGI. `` Census of India : Comparative speaker 's strength of Scheduled Languages - 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 ''. Jump up ^ `` Indiaspeak : English is our 2nd language - Times of India ''. Jump up ^ `` Hindi. Varanasi. Norwegians. What 's the sambandh ? - The Siasat Daily ''. Jump up ^ Mikael Parkvall, `` Världens 100 största språk 2007 '' ( The World 's 100 Largest Languages in 2007 ), in Nationalencyklopedin. Asterisks mark the 2010 estimates for the top dozen languages. Jump up ^ `` Hindi at UN : India to take action to get official status ''. The Hindu. Chennai, India. 2007 - 07 - 15. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 25. Jump up ^ `` Hindi in UNO ''. 2009 - 12 - 11. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 25. Jump up ^ `` Government working actively for Hindi as official language of UN : SM Krishna ''. 2009 - 12 - 10. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 25. Jump up ^ `` Hindi should be an official language in the UN : Nepal Vice President - Firstpost ''. 12 January 2015. Jump up ^ `` The World Factbook -- Central Intelligence Agency ''. Jump up ^ `` Tony Correia - Afonso : Portuguese Language in Goa ''. Jump up ^ `` Lusophone bloc mobilises to make Portuguese a UN language ''. The Portugal News Online. 2008 - 10 - 04. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 26. Jump up ^ Barry Hatton ( 2008 - 05 - 17 ). `` Portugal 's lawmakers accept Brazilian version of language ''. The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 26. Jump up ^ `` Erdogan meets U.N. SG Ban Ki - moon ''. Anadolu Agency. 2011 - 09 - 23. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 2011 - 10 - 30. Jump up ^ `` Turkish emerges as candidate for official UN language ''. Sundays Zaman. 2011 - 10 - 02. Retrieved 2012 - 07 - 15. Jump up ^ Resolution 54 / 64 Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. adopted 6 December 1999. ^ Jump up to : Multilingualism : Report of the Secretary - General Archived 2 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Doc. A / 56 / 656, para. 4. Jump up ^ `` Secretary - General Appoints Assistant Secretary - General Federico Riesco Coordinator for Multilingualism ''. 2000 - 09 - 08. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 30. Jump up ^ `` Secretary - General Appoints Under - Secretary - General Shashi Tharoor Coordinator for Multilingualism ''. 2003 - 03 - 31. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 25. Jump up ^ Resolution 54 / 64 Archived 20 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Multilingualism ( 6 December 1999 ). Jump up ^ `` Secretary - General Appoints Under - Secretary - General Catherine Pollard of Guyana Coordinator for Multilingualism ''. 2015 - 12 - 17. Retrieved 2016 - 01 - 08. Jump up ^ `` United Nations Information Centres Launch Redesigned Website Telling Organization 's Story in 130 Languages ''. 2008 - 10 - 24. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 25. Jump up ^ `` Secretary - General Appoints Under - Secretary Kiyo Akasaka as Coordinator for Multilingualism ''. 2008 - 05 - 29. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 25. Jump up ^ `` Department of Public Information to Launch ' Language Days at the United Nations ' '' ( Press release ). United Nations. 2010 - 02 - 19. UN Doc ID OBV / 853 PI / 1926. Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. ^ Jump up to : `` First - ever French language day celebrated at UN ''. UN News Centre. 2010 - 03 - 19. Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. ^ Jump up to : `` United Nations Observances -- Multilingualism ''. Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ Chen Wen ( 2010 - 11 - 15 ). `` UN Celebrates First Chinese Language Day ''. Beijing Review. Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ `` Chinese Language Day '' ( in Chinese ). Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ `` UN celebrates Chinese Language Day with art and exhibitions ''. 2011 - 04 - 20. Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ `` English Language Day at the United Nations, 23 April 2011 ''. Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ `` L'ONU célèbre la Journée de la langue française '' ( in French ). 2011 - 03 - 21. Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ `` Spanish Language Day to be celebrated at HQ on Tuesday, 12 October 2010 ''. deleGATE. 2010 - 10 - 11. Retrieved 2011 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ `` Rules of Procedure of the General Conference '' ( PDF ). 2010., Rule 54 Jump up ^ `` Universal Postal Union -- Languages ''. Universal Postal Union. Retrieved 2010 - 08 - 03. Jump up ^ `` Rules of Procedure of the Governing Council '' ( PDF ). Retrieved 2010 - 08 - 03., Rule 20 Jump up ^ `` Rules of Procedure of the Executive Board '' ( PDF ). Retrieved 2010 - 08 - 03., Rule 26 External links Language Log Multilingualism at the United Nations : Research Guide Top UN official stresses need for Internet multilingualism to bridge digital divide United Nations António Guterres, Secretary - General Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary - General Peter Thomson, General Assembly President United Nations System United Nations Charter Preamble Principal organs General Assembly President Security Council Members Economic and Social Council Secretariat Secretary - General Deputy Secretary - General Under - Secretary - General International Court of Justice statute Trusteeship Council Programmes and specialized agencies FAO ICAO IFAD ILO IMO ITC IPCC IAEA MINURSO UNIDO ITU UNAIDS SCSL UNCTAD UNCITRAL UNCDF UNDAF UNDG UNDP UNDPI UNDPKO peacekeeping UNEP OzonAction UNEP / GRID - Arendal UNESCO UNFIP UNFPA UN-HABITAT OHCHR UNHCR UNHRC UNICEF UNICRI UNIDIR UNITAR UN-Oceans UNODC UNOPS UNOSAT UNRISD UNRWA UNU UNU - OP UNU - CRIS UNV UN Women UNWTO UPU WFP WHO WIPO WMO Secretariat Headquarters Office of the Secretary - General 's Envoy on Youth Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary - General United Nations Office at Geneva Palace of Nations United Nations Office at Nairobi United Nations Office at Vienna United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs United Nations Department of Political Affairs United Nations Department of Public Information Dag Hammarskjöld Library United Nations Department for Safety and Security United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services United Nations Office of Legal Affairs United Nations Office for Developing Countries United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs United Nations Office for Partnerships United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UN organizations by location Members / Observers Full members Founding members UNSC Permanent members Observers European Union History League of Nations Four Policemen Declaration by United Nations Peacekeeping missions history timeline Enlargement Resolutions Security Council vetoes General Assembly 66th 67th Security Council Cyprus Iran Iraq Israel Lebanon Nagorno - Karabakh North Korea Palestine Syria Western Sahara Elections Secretary - General ( 2006 2016 ) International Court of Justice 2011 General Assembly President ( 2012 2016 ) Security Council ( 2015 2016 ) Related Bretton Woods system Comprehensive Nuclear - Test - Ban Treaty Criticism Delivering as One Flag Honour Flag Four Nations Initiative Genocide Convention UN Global Compact ICC International Years UN laissez - passer Military Staff Committee Official languages Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Peacekeeping Treaty Series UN Day Universal Declaration of Human Rights Millennium Declaration Summit Development Goals Security Council veto power UN reform Security Council reform UN Art Collection UN Memorial Cemetery Korea Other Outline UN television film series ( 1964 -- 1966 ) In popular culture Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Official_languages_of_the_United_Nations&oldid=803602996 '' Categories : History of the United Nations Language policy Languages of international organizations United Nations United Nations media Official languages Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links CS1 Chinese - language sources ( zh ) CS1 French - language sources ( fr ) Use dmy dates from May 2013 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from August 2015 Articles with unsourced statements from July 2012 Articles with unsourced statements from August 2012 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Español فارسی Français Հայերեն Қазақша Македонски Bahasa Melayu Nederlands Português Русский Татарча / tatarça Українська اردو Tiếng Việt Edit links This page was last edited on 3 October 2017, at 14 : 19. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what is the official language of the united nations
Answer: Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic)