PURPOSE: The United Nations General Assembly established 30 September as International Translation Day to recognise the work of translation professionals Every year since 2005, the United Nations invites all its staff, accredited permanent missions staff and students from select partner universities to compete in the UN St. Jerome Translation Contest, a contest which rewards the best translations in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, as well as German, and aims to celebrate multilingualism and highlight the important role of translators and other language professionals in multilateral diplomacy. Interpreters provide simultaneous interpretation from and into the six official languages for the meetings of the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council and all their subsidiary bodies. A team for a six-language meeting requires 14 interpreters: three per booth for Arabic and Chinese (because they interpret from and into those languages), and two a piece for Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. English and French are the working languages of the Secretariat. Some of the other official languages may also be working languages in the Regional Commissions. So, let’s celebrate our creativity, longevity and unity.

FORUM: ”Translation, an art worth protecting – improving good translation as an art, possibilities, and pitfalls.” World Translation Day 2024. The theme calls for us to protect translation as an art, protect copyright and related rights, and protect our livelihoods, thereby ensuring the future and sustainability of our profession. This year’s theme embraces the recognition of translations as original creative works in their own right, owed the benefit of copyright protection under the Berne Convention. As the creators of derivative works, translators have fought to protect their moral rights to be credited for their translation work, control any changes to that work, and receive appropriate remuneration. Protecting these simple things will ensure a sustainable future for translation professionals and the historic art of translation itself. Copyright-related issues extend far into all areas of the profession, including the use of translations in the cultural sector, literary translation, publishing and legal translation. With the development of AI and the expansion of the digital sphere, the implications of copyright for translators, interpreters and terminologists have increased exponentially. Attribution of translation in the digital sphere is more and more crucial, in addition to allowing translators to receive recognition for their efforts, it clearly signals the source of a text, identifying it as human rather than AI generated content.To honor International Translation Day (ITD), let’s recognize the important role that translation plays in our lives, and celebrate our shared humanity. Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #Translation, #InternationalTranslationDay; #30September, #languageprofessionals, #translators.

EVENTS: On September 30th, from 9:30 am to 05:45 pm, Watch the live-streaming of meetings from UNHQ in New York; Listen in live the public meetings held at the UN Geneva and the Today's meeting from UNON, the United Nations Office at Nairobi.

On September 27th, from 8:00 am to 9:30 am New York time to celebrate the International Translation Day 2024; The FIT Council and the FIT Standing committees are pleased to held a panel discussion on issues surrounding copyright and to present the International Translation Day 2024 Poster. Based on the ITD theme for 2024, the webinar will explore the issues of copyright, language rights and the future of the profession in the context of recent technological change. Good translation is an art worth protecting. Poor translation is not. In the light of the recent technological developments, artificial intelligence (generative AI), LLM (Large Language Models), improved neural machine translation, we will discuss if and how we can improve good translation as an art, possibilities, and pitfalls. What are opportunities, what are threats? Its violation of copyrights. Its machine generated literature. Translation is many things: literary, audiovisual, scientific, legal, technical, financial, etc. Its terminology, its culture, its locale, its style, its target groups and intended readers. Its translanguaging and text-generative AI. Can text-generative AI technology support translanguaging practices and multilingual communicative competence, or do we risk the technology creating (even) greater linguistic uniformity. You are invited to Join the webinar featuring panel discussion and Q&A. Don’t forget to Register to participate!

STATEMENTS: Read the statement of the United Nations Secretary-General on International Translation Day 2024; September 30th.