2008 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LANGUAGES

[Harold Schiffman]

United Nations

GENERAL ASSEMBLY PROCLAIMS 2008 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LANGUAGES, IN
EFFORT TO PROMOTE UNITY IN DIVERSITY, GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING

The General Assembly this afternoon, recognizing that genuine
multilingualism promotes unity in diversity and international
understanding, proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Languages.

Acting without a vote, the Assembly, also recognizing that the United
Nations pursues multilingualism as a means of promoting, protecting
and preserving diversity of languages and cultures globally,
emphasized the paramount importance of the equality of the
Organization's six official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English,
French, Russian and Spanish).

In that regard, the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to ensure
that all language services were given equal treatment and were
provided with equally favourable working conditions and resources.
The Secretary-General was also requested to complete the task of
publishing all important older United Nations documents on the
Organization's website in all six official languages, on a priority
basis.

Further, the Assembly emphasized the importance of making appropriate
use of all theofficial languages in all the activities of the
Department of Public Information, withthe aim of eliminating the
disparity between the use of English and the use of the five other
official languages.


http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2007/ga10592.doc.htm