Secretary-General Appoints Movses Abelian of Armenia Coordinator for Multilingualism

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Under‑Secretary‑General for General Assembly and Conference Management Movses Abelian of Armenia (as well as a national of Georgia), as the new Coordinator for Multilingualism, in implementation of General Assembly resolution 69/250.  In this role, Mr. Abelian is responsible for coordinating the overall implementation of multilingualism Secretariat-wide.  This appointment is made pursuant to General Assembly resolutions 54/64 of 1999, 61/266 of 2007 and 71/328 of 2017 on the appointment and responsibilities of the Coordinator for Multilingualism.

Multilingualism is one of the Secretary-General’s priorities 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.  The Coordinator also serves as lead for multilingualism-related matters at the United Nations System level, with support by the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination Secretariat.

Previously, this function was performed by Catherine Pollard of Guyana, former Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service in this area.