FIT Legal Translation Standing Committee: Round Table

Where:

Date:

Online – ZOOM

December 07, 2024
1:00pm Paris (UTC+1).  
7am New York
8pm Beijing
11pm Sydney

Register Now
Download Draft Guidelines

The FIT Legal Translation Standing Committee prepared draft guidelines on court translators and interpreters working conditions. The document is based on the survey of job satisfaction level conducted between court translators and interpreters in 2023. During the round table members of the LTSC will share results of the survey and explain the general concept and purpose of the guidelines. The draft will further be subject to possible amendments based on the feedback collected during the round table.

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Download Draft Guidelines

Carina Adriana Barres

Lawyer and Sworn Translator in the National and Federal Courts of the City of Buenos Aires, member of the Association of Sworn Translators of the city of Buenos Aires, the Association of Sworn Translators and Interpreters of the Province of Buenos Aires, the Buenos Aires Bar Association and the American Translators Association.

Claire Richardot

Sworn translator in France, Member of the French Society of Translators and member-expert  of its commission on sworn translators and interpreters, member of the French association of expert translators in courts of appeal (UNETICA).

Alexander Larin

PhD in Law, assistant professor, author of the law course for translation students and legal initiatives on sworn translation, Board Member and Chief Legal Officer of the Union of Translators of Russia, CEO of Alba Translating Company

International Translation Day 2024 Webinar

Join us for our International Translation Day 2024 Webinar, featuring a panel discussion and Q&A

Where:

Date:

Online – ZOOM

Friday, September 27, 2024
2 pm to 3:30 pm Paris (UTC+2)
8am to 9:30am New York
8pm to 9:30pm Beijing
10pm to 11:30pm Sydney

Register Now

Theme: Translation, an art worth protecting –
improving good translation as an art, possibilities, and pitfalls

Based on the ITD theme for 2024, this panel discussion 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?
Based on the ITD theme for 2024, the webinar seeks to explore the issues of copyright, language rights and the future of the profession in the context of recent technological change.

Panelists

Cristina Valentini, Head of Terminology Unit, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Cristina Valentini

Tex Texin, Internationalisation Architect Technology Strategy Advisor, Translation Commons. Tex Texin

Marie Diur, Head of interpreting, United Nations. Marie Diur

Prof. Dr. Ivan Bratko, Computer Scientist and AI specialist, Slovene Academy of Science & Arts, University of Ljubljana. Prof. Dr. Ivan Bratko

European Conference on Literary Translation

Rencontres européennes de la traduction littéraire
European Conference on Literary Translation

3 – 4 Oct 2024

In celebration of the UNESCO World Book Capital programme, CEATL (European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations) is hosting the European Conference on Literary Translation in this Year’s World Book Capital, Strasbourg.

The event will showcase all aspects of literary translation: translators, writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, book festivals and fairs, and organisations supporting literary translation in Europe.

Hosted by the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the conference sessions will discuss challenges facing the sector, including accessibility and diversity, artificial intelligence, freedom of speech, cooperation and best practice, among other topics.  

Plenary sessions will be livestreamed in French, English and German, and the videos will then be posted on the CEATL website.

Position and Discussion Papers

FIT Position Paper on the Use of AI in Interpreting

August 2024

FIT Position Paper on the Use of AI in Interpreting

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the field of translation and interpreting presents significant issues for both professional interpreters and the individuals whose words they interpret. As a global body representing over 65,000 individual translation, interpreting and terminology practitioners in over 65 countries, the stance of the International Federation of Translators is firmly against the replacement of human interpreters with unsupervised, unrevised machine interpreting and translation, as it creates unacceptable levels of risk and error, and undermines the role of professional interpreters and translators. Cases are arising in which governments and organisations are tempted to use unsupervised AI translation tools for either translation or interpreting.

FIT Position Paper on Translation Grades

July 2024

FIT Position Paper on Translation Grades

FIT, the voice of associations of translators, interpreters and terminologists around the world, sees the need to state its position on translation grades. This position paper will discuss translation grades as defined in the CSA Research report “Making the (Translation) Grade: Tying Translation Quality to Stakeholder Requirements and Use Cases” (Lommel & DePalma, 2022), and some of the issues raised during the webinar organised jointly by CSA Research, a research company focused on the global content and language services markets, and FIT North America, held online on 9 March, 2023. We will also consider other articles on the subject and, more broadly, the ways in which public, private and NGOs’ translation services are currently offered on the market. A caveat, as of date of sharing this latest version of the paper with FIT members (February, 2024), the concept of “grades” has already been included in 2023 international standard ASTM F2575-23e2: Standard Practice for Language Translation.

FIT Position Paper on Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

July 2022

FIT Position Paper on Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

FIT, the voice of associations of translators, terminologists and interpreters around the world, wishes to state its position on Continuing Professional Development (CPD). This paper is aimed not only at the FIT associations and their individual members but also at a wider readership.

FIT Position Paper on Educating the Next Generation of Translators

April 2022

FIT Position Paper on Educating the Next Generation of Translators

FIT, the global organisation representing associations of translators, terminologists and interpreters, sees a need to state its position on educating the next generation of translators, while drawing attention to various questions that should be taken into account.

FIT Position Paper on Translation, Localisation and Transcreation

January 2022

FIT Position Paper on Translation, Localisation and Transcreation

The language industry differentiates between translation, localisation and transcreation as distinct activities. Nevertheless, many professional translators are engaged in localisation and transcreation projects, which raises the question of the role of translation in these multilingual language services. The purpose of this paper is to provide an answer to this question from the perspective of FIT, as the representative of professional translators on the world stage.

FIT Position Paper on Post-Editing

May 2021

FIT Position Paper on Post-Editing

FIT, as the voice of associations of translators, terminologists and interpreters around the world, would like to provide information on post-editing and draw attention to some of the risks and consequences.

FIT Position Paper on the Role of FIT

May 2020

FIT Position Paper on the Role of FIT

The International Federation of Translators (FIT) unites over 130 professional associations, training institutes and research centres worldwide, thus representing more than 85,000 translators, terminologists and interpreters in some 55 countries. On the basis of this strong position, FIT is able to play a significant role in the translation, terminology and interpreting sector and, beyond that, in society as a whole.

FIT Position Paper on Machine Translation

August 2019 (updated)

FIT Position Paper on Machine Translation
Machine Translation: 10 questions and answers

Machine Translation (MT), i.e. fully automatic translation using computers, which is viewed by some as the solution for obtaining more or less satisfactory translations quickly and cheaply, has been gaining considerable ground in recent times. FIT, as the voice of associations of translators, terminologists and interpreters around the world, would therefore like to provide some information on this subject and draw attention to diverse consequences for the users as well as professional translators and their associations.

FIT Discussion Paper on Remote Interpreting

June 2019

FIT, the voice of associations of translators, terminologists and interpreters around the world, would like to encourage a discussion on remote interpreting because of the numerous challenges posed by this form of interpreting.

Remote interpreting (RI), which is also known as distance interpreting, means that the interpreter is not in the same room as the speaker and/or the audience. There are various types of RI, depending on the equipment and type of connection used (video over internet or audio over internet or telephone). Consequently, in some cases the interpreter can see the speaker and possibly the audience on a screen; in others, the interpreter is unable to see either.

FIT Position Paper on International Standards

June 2017

FIT Position Paper on International Standards

FIT, the voice of associations of translators, interpreters and terminologists around the world, sees a need to state its position on international standards relating to those professions.

Standards in this context can be defined as a set of rules or guidelines aimed at harmonisation. Their application is not required by law, but a growing number of clients are demanding that translators and interpreters work in compliance with the standards and thus conform to the rules laid down in them.

FIT Position Paper on Relations between Freelancers and Translation Companies

June 2017

FIT Position Paper on Relations between Freelancers and Translation Companies

FIT, the voice of associations of translators, interpreters and terminologists around the world, sees a need to state its position on the relationship between freelance translators and translation companies.
In addition to serving direct clients, freelance translators may choose to collaborate with reputable translation companies, be they single or multi-language vendors (SLVs or MLVs). Provided that this collaboration is based on fair, precisely defined terms and conditions, it may offer certain advantages for both sides.

FIT Position Paper on the Future of Professional Translators

April 2017

FIT position paper on the Future of professional translators

What does the future hold for professional translators? FIT, as the voice of associations representing those professionals around the world, would like to draw attention to actual or conceivable developments and indicate what actions are recommendable.

FIT Position Paper on Crowdsourcing of Translation Services

August 2016

FIT Position Paper on Crowdsourcing of Translation Services
Crowdsourcing of Translation Services: Questions and Answers

In recent years, crowdsourcing has been an increasingly widespread phenomenon in the translation sector. FIT, as the voice of associations of translators, interpreters and terminologists around the world, would therefore like to provide some information on this subject and draw attention to diverse consequences for the users of translation services as well as professional translators and their associations.

FIT Position Paper on Internships

August 2016

FIT Position Paper on Internships

FIT, the voice of associations of translators, interpreters and terminologists around the world, sees a strong need to state its position on internships relating to those professions.

Internships come in many different forms. Basically they enable interns (students in secondary or higher education or postgraduates) to gain work experience in white-collar and professional careers at companies or institutions. Legislation on internships varies from one country to another, often with a distinction being made between for-profit and non-profit organisations.

FIT Position Paper on Machine Translation

August 2016. Updated version was published in August 2019.

FIT Position Paper on Machine Translation
Machine Translation: 10 questions and answers

Machine Translation (MT), i.e. fully automatic translation using computers, which is viewed by some as the solution for obtaining more or less satisfactory translations quickly and cheaply, has been gaining considerable ground in recent times. FIT, as the voice of associations of translators, interpreters and terminologists around the world, would like to provide some information on this subject and draw attention to diverse consequences for the users as well as professional translators and their associations.

Resolution on translators and interpreters in conflict zones

August 2014

Resolution on translators and interpreters in conflict zones

With great concern the participants at the 2014 FIT Statutory Congress also considered the situation of those colleagues who undertake their work in conflict zones all over the world.