UN French Language Day and International Francophonie Day
UN French Language Day and International Francophonie Day is held on March 20. Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. This event in the second decade of the month March is annual.
The French geographer, Onésime Reclus, first coined the term Francophonie in the nineteenth century. The term never really caught on until the 1960s when Léopold Senghor, first president of Sénégal, used it consistently. La Francophonie is a group of 88 states and member governments and observers that share French as a common language, as well as values in common. It is an important player in international relations that represents 1 billion people, including 300 million Francophones, on the five continents.
The UN French Language Day, observed annually on 20 March, was established by the UN's Department of Public Information in 2010.
The day is observed to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization. The United Nations celebrates six “Language Days” each year, devoted to the six official languages of the United Nations, which are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. This day recognizes the potential of languages and cultures to unite people and create spaces of solidarity and understanding.