Moderators: Moderators, Junior Moderators
im not talking only about English,, there were world leaders from France, Germany, Spain who on earth can translate Somali into them?MenaceToSociety wrote:thats an excuse...I made an angry thread earlier today regarding this topic..pissed me off that he was speaking Arabic...but I assure you that they have a fine Somali translator..I was impressed how the Somali dude translates(The president came to Ohio and I witnessed it as he was giving a lecture in my school)
Arabic
Chinese (Mandarin)
English
French
Russian
Spanish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_l ... ed_NationsThese languages are used at meetings of various UN organs, particularly the General Assembly (Article 51 of its Rules of Procedure) 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.
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 states formally brought this to the attention of the Secretary-General in 2001.[1] (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.[2]) Over the last several years, 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.[3][4]
In several recent resolutions concerning human resources management at the UN, the General Assembly has stressed “the need to respect the equality of each of the two working languages of the Secretariat” and requested the Secretary-General “to ensure that vacancy announcements specify the need for either of the working languages [English and French] of the Secretariat unless the functions of the post require a specific working language.”[5]
The Secretary-General's most recent report on multilingualism was issued on October 4, 2010.[6] In response, on July 19, 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.[7]
