Conferences@934: French language in the United Nations

French language in the United Nations

French is one of the six official United Nations languages, along with English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Arabic. Thus, French is used in the meetings of the UN organs and is used in official documents. French is also, along with English, one of the two working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. Moreover, the Permanent Representation of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie to the United Nations organizes and monitors francophone presence at the UN. For this month’s conference, Stéphane Dujarric and Margaret Besheer will discuss French language in the United Nations.

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Pictures of the conference

 
Speakers:

Stéphane DUJARRIC
Director of the United Nations’ News and Media Division and Spokesperson under UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Margaret BESHEER
Voice of America’s United Nation’s correspondent

Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 6:30 pm
Consulate General of France
934 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10021
(btw. 74th and 75th Streets)
 

Stéphane DUJARRIC has been Director of the News and Media Division in the United Nations’ Department of Public Information since March 2011. In that role, he oversees the UN’s television, radio and Internet operations. He joined the UN in 2000 as Deputy Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and was then named Spokesperson in 2005. After Kofi Annan left, Stéphane Dujarric worked as Deputy Communications Director for Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. In 2009, he was named Senior Advisor and Spokesperson at the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Before joining the UN, Mr Dujarric worked for ABC News for close to ten years, in New York, Paris and London.
 

 
Margaret BESHEER has been Voice of America’s United Nation’s correspondent since 2008, covering stories from headquarters in New York and in the field. She has also reported for VOA from Iraq (2006-07) and covered the 2006Lebanon war. Prior to joining VOA in 2002, Margaret Besheer spent a decade as a print journalist in Beirut, Lebanon, and Washington, D.C. She is co-author of Cultures of the World: Saudi Arabia (Times Publishing, 2003). She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.