The Supreme Council for Culture will commemorate World Arabic Language Day, celebrated yearly on 18 December, the date on which the UN General Assembly designated Arabic as the sixth official language of the United Nations Egypt's Supreme Council for Culture (SCC) will hold a conference on Wednesday 18 Dec at 11:00am to commemorate the yearly UN World Arabic Language Day. The event will comprise a number of Egypt's most renowned Arabic language professors and literary critics. The conference will discuss a number of related issues, including teaching Arabic to children and new styles in Arabic writing. A selection of Egypt's most famous poets – Ibrahim Abu Senna, Farouk Shousha, Hassan Teleb, Emad Ghazaly and Mohamed Shahawy – will take part in the conference's closing ceremony at 7:00pm. During its 190th session, the UNESCO executive board adopted a decision to designate 18 December – the date on which the UN General Assembly marked Arabic as the sixth official language of the United Nations – as World Arabic Language Day. The initiative was proposed by Morocco and Saudi Arabia, seeking to promote multilingualism and cultural diversity, as well as celebrate the Arabic language's role in and contribution to the safeguarding and dissemination of human civilisation and culture. According to the UNESCO official website, Arabic is the language of 22 of its member states and one of the organisation's official languages. A widespread tongue, Arabic is spoken by more than 422 million people, most of whom live in the Middle East and North Africa. Arabic became a UN official working language on 18 December 1973 by virtue of a United Nations General Assembly resolution. In an effort to support and strengthen linguistic and cultural diversity within the UN system, on 19 February 2010 the United Nations Department of Public Information announced the decision to celebrate an international day for each of the six official languages of the UN: French (March 20), English (April 23), Russian (June 6), Spanish (October 12), Chinese (November 13) and Arabic (December 18). Programme: Wednesday, 18 Dec, 11:00am Supreme Council for Culture Zamalek, Opera House grounds http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/89303.aspx
