This is a list of official languages for major international and regional institutions. Different organizations sometimes refer to their principal languages of administration and communication as "working languages", while others refer to these as being "official". No distinction is made here, except where an organization itself, distinguishes between its official and working languages.
English and French are often regarded as the symbolic official languages, although the former has gained prominence in recent years.[1]
International
According to a recent study of multilingualism in 13 major international organizations (Commonwealth, ICC, ILO, IMF, IOC, IPU, ITU, OECD, UN, UPU, WB, WHO, and WTO), English an official language in almost all (12). This is followed by French (10); Spanish (6); and Arabic, Chinese, and Russian (3 each). Interpretation is offered in Japanese and German as well for 2 organizations.[2]
The six official languages of the United Nations reflects the languages of the permanent members of the Security Council (Chinese, English, French, and Russian), in addition to Arabic and Spanish. Another study found that the percentage of each language used at each United Nations meeting in 2010 was distributed as follows: English (98%), French (87%), Spanish (34%), Russian (10%), Arabic (7%), and Chinese (3%).[3]
The following is a list of major international and inter-governmental organizations.
| Institutions | Languages |
|---|---|
| Antarctic Treaty Secretariat (ATS) | English, French, Spanish, and Russian. |
| Bank for International Settlements (BIS) | English, French, German, and Spanish. |
| Commonwealth of Nations | English |
| Holy See | Latin (official), French and Italian (working). |
| International Criminal Court (ICC) | Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.[4] (English and French are working languages.[4]) |
| International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) | Arabic, English, French and Spanish. |
| International Energy Agency (IEA) | English and French |
| International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) | English, French and Spanish. |
| International Labour Organization (ILO/OIT) | English, French and Spanish. |
| International Monetary Fund (IMF) | English (with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian and Spanish). |
| International Olympic Committee (IOC/CIO) | French and English (with simultaneous interpretation provided for Arabic, German, Russian, and Spanish). |
| International Organization for Standardization (ISO) | English, French and Russian. |
| International Telecommunication Union (ITU) | English, French and Spanish. |
| International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) | English, French and Spanish. |
| Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) | French and English (Conferences also have simultaneous interpretation into Arabic and Spanish.) |
| Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD/OCDE) | English and French. |
| Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) | Spanish and Portuguese. |
| Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC/OCI) | Arabic, English and French. |
| Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) | English, French, and Spanish. |
| United Nations (UN/ONU) | Under the Charter, the official languages are Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish as well as Arabic which was added in 1973.[5] See also: Official languages of the United Nations. |
| Universal Postal Union (UPU) | French (official) and English (working). Other languages translated: Arabic, Chinese, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. |
| World Bank (WB) | English (Conferences also have simultaneous interpretation into Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.) |
| World Customs Organization | English, French, and Spanish (with translation offered into Arabic and Russian). |
| World Hindi Secretariat | Hindi |
| World Health Organization (WHO) | Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. |
| World Trade Organization (WTO/OMC) | English, French and Spanish. |
Regional
The following is a list of major regional organizations.
Defunct
| Institutions | Languages |
|---|---|
| Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) | Russian. See also: Name in official languages of the members |
| League of Nations | English and French. |
| Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) | Czech, German, Polish, and Russian. |
See also
- List of official languages by state
- Working language
- List of international organisations which have French as an official language
Further reading
- Elena Aronova, "Russian and the Making of World Languages during the Cold War," Link
References
- ^ The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History: From the Mid-19th Century to the Present Day. Palgrave Macmillan. 2016. p. 559.
- ^ Coulmas, Florian (2017). An Introduction to Multilingualism: Language in a Changing World. Oxford University Press. p. 121.
- ^ Fernández-Vítores, David. "Spanish in the United Nations System" (PDF). Instituto Cervantes.
- ^ a b "Article 50 of Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-06-17.
- ^ "Basic Facts About The United Nations", By United Nations (2004) ISBN 92-1-100936-7
- ^ "The ASEAN Charter" (PDF). ASEAN.
- ^ TREATY REVISING THE TREATY ESTABLISHING THE BENELUX ECONOMIC UNION SIGNED ON 3 FEBRUARY 1958 Art. 38
- ^ "Consolidated text of the Treaty of the Southern African Development Community, as amended". SADC. Retrieved 1 October 2011.