The General Assembly recognizes multilingualism as a core value of the Organization, entailing the active involvement and commitment of all stakeholders, including all United Nations duty stations and offices away from Headquarters. It also emphasizes the responsibility of the Secretariat in mainstreaming multilingualism in its activities. It is against this backdrop that the Secretary-General has included multilingualism among his priorities.
Since resolution 54/64 of 6 December 1999, the Secretary-General has been invited to appoint a senior Secretariat official to serve as Coordinator of questions relating to multilingualism throughout the Secretariat.
On 3 September 2019, Mr. Movses Abelian, Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, was appointed as UN Coordinator for Multilingualism. In addition to his Secretariat-wide responsibilities, the Coordinator also serves as lead for multilingualism-related matters at the UN System level, with support by the secretariat of the Chief Executives Board for Coordination.
