France Becomes First Government to Endorse UN Open Source Principles; 19 Organizations Join

The Government of the French Republic became the first national government to endorse the UN Open Source Principles, the United Nations Open Source United community announced. Nineteen additional organisations joined France in this step, bringing the total number of supporters to 36. Endorsers include Creative Commons, the Drupal Association, SUSE, the WordPress Foundation, and Mercedes-Benz AG, reflecting broad international backing for open-source collaboration within the UN system.

The UN Open Source Principles, adopted by the UN Chief Executive Board’s Digital Technology Network, outline eight guidelines for software development and sharing. Key principles cover making open source the default approach, contributing improvements back to the community, ensuring security by design, fostering inclusive participation, designing for reusability, providing thorough documentation, recognizing and supporting contributors, and sustaining scalable solutions.

Open Source United, a community of practice established by the Digital Technology Network, will continue to promote these principles across UN agencies and beyond. More information is available on the Open Source United website.