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
|
| Amnesty International
|
Portuguese, Arabic, English, French and Spanish
|
| Antarctic Treaty Secretariat (ATS)
|
English, French, Spanish, and Russian.
|
| Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
|
English, French, German, and Spanish.
|
| Commonwealth of Nations
|
English
|
| Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP)
|
Portuguese
|
| FIFA
|
Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Russian, German and Portuguese
|
| 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.)
|
| Latin Union
|
Catalan, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian
|
| Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD/OCDE)
|
English and French.
|
| Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)
|
French
|
| Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI)
|
Spanish and Portuguese.
|
| Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC/OCI)
|
Arabic, English and French.
|
| Red Cross
|
Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese and German
|
| 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 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.
| Institutions
|
Languages
|
| African Development Bank
|
English, French
|
| African Union (AU/UA)
|
Arabic, French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Swahili. See also: Languages of the African Union
|
| Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA)
|
Arabic
|
| Arab League
|
Arabic
|
| Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
|
English
|
| Asian Development Bank (ADB)
|
English
|
| Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
|
English
|
| Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
|
English (working language), Burmese, Filipino, Indonesian, Khmer, Lao, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, Thai and Vietnamese.[6]
|
| Benelux
|
Dutch and French.[7]
|
| Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
|
English, French, Dutch and Spanish.
|
| Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)
|
English
|
| Central American Common Market (CACM)
|
Spanish
|
| Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
|
English, French and Portuguese.
|
| Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
|
Russian
|
| Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC)
|
Arabic
|
| Council of Europe
|
English and French.
|
| East African Community (EAC)
|
English, French and Swahili.
|
| Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS/CEDEAO)
|
English, French and Portuguese.
|
| Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC)
|
French, Portuguese and Spanish.
|
| Eurasian Development Bank (EDB)
|
Russian
|
| Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)
|
Russian
|
| European Space Agency (ESA)
|
English, French and German.
|
| European Union (EU/UE)
|
English, French and German (working languages) of some internal EU bodies, such as the European Commission. See also: Languages of the European Union
|
| Group of Seven (G7), formerly the Group of Eight (G8)
|
English, French, German, Italian, and Japanese
|
| Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
|
Arabic
|
| Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA)
|
English
|
| Islamic Development Bank (IDB)
|
Arabic, with French and English as working languages.
|
| Mercosur
|
Portuguese and Spanish.
|
| New Development Bank (NDB)
|
English
|
| Nordic Investment Bank (NDB)
|
English
|
| North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
|
English, Spanish and French.
|
| Nordic Council (NC)
|
Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish (working languages)
|
| North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO/OTAN)
|
English and French.
|
| Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
|
English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.
|
| Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
|
English
|
| Organization of American States (OAS/OEA)
|
Spanish, English, Portuguese and French. See also: The official languages of the Organization of American States
|
| Pacific Islands Forum
|
English
|
| Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
|
Chinese and Russian.
|
| South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
|
English
|
| South Pacific Commission (SPC)
|
English and French.
|
| Southern African Development Community (SADC)
|
English, French and Portuguese (working languages)[8]
|
| Union of South American Nations (Unasul-Unasur)
|
Dutch, English, Portuguese and Spanish.
|
Defunct
See also
Further reading
- Elena Aronova, "Russian and the Making of World Languages during the Cold War," Link
References
External links
