UNESCO

UNESCO and FIT relations

According to the New Directives concerning UNESCO’s partnership with non-governmental organizations (UNESCO 36 C/Resolution 108, introduced in 2012), there are now two types of partnership (associate status and consultative status) instead of three (operational, associate and consultative relations). In the past, FIT maintained operational status with UNESCO with the elimination of this partnership type, FIT has been re-classified to a consultative status, which is aimed at achieving a flexible and dynamic partnership in the definition and implementation of UNESCO’s programmes. [More]

UNESCO, together with FUNREDES and the Union Latine, has launched Twelve years of measuring linguistic diversity in the Internet: balance and perspectives. Written Pimienta, Daniel Prado and Alvaro Blanco, this publication is an update to the previous UNESCO study on this subject that was issued for the World Summit on the Information Society in 2005.

Activities and Reports

• International Conference of NGOs-Unesco 2012
• Conférence internationale des NGOs de l'Unesco en 2012
• 2010: Year of Rapprochement between cultures
• Report: International Conference Paris 2009
• Report on FIT visibility through UNESCO

FIT and the UN Year of Rapprochement between Cultures

To mark the UN Year of Rapprochement between Cultures, the  FIT Literary Translation Committee is organising an event: World Literature- Francophonie – Jean Genet – Censorship –  Literary Translation.

This event was accepted as a valid way to mark the Year, and is now listed on the special Year of Rapprochement website.

• Activity List

FIT is also invited to attend the 184th Session of UNESCO Executive Board. The Board meets twice a year. It has just issued an updated version of its Rules of Procedure dated 2010. It makes interesting reading, 28 pages long.

As UNESCO comes under the UN, FIT also can participate in the ECOSOC virtual Network of NGOs. It is invited to attend events and can list its own events on the NGO section of the ECOSOC website. FIT Flash and Translatio are now also displayed there.

One of UNESCO’s links is to WSIS (World Summit on Information Society). WSIS has made a platform available for NGOs to create an account and list events. FIT has taken up this offer and used this facility.

As Miriam Lee and Rupert Swyer both attended the Partners’ Forum, in October 2009, in UNESCO Paris, they were able to distribute copies of the latest FIT brochure and to answer queries on the spot, from individuals who expressed an interest in forming a Translators’ Association in their country, and to alert delegates to the Literary Translation event planned for 2010.

ECOSOC

Using comparatively limited resources, FIT can grasp this free opportunity to be listed, and to communicate its activities, through the IRENE network created, as was the WSIS platform, to serve the UN NGO communities.

ECOSOC site is an ideal opportunity for FIT to enter this wider virtual world, and use the site resources, to pro-actively:

• reinforce its international identity
• publicise the role of translators’ associations in its federation around the world
• highlight the work of FIT committees
• strengthen its links with a global community of NGOs
• show FIT members how FIT, as an NGO, has global information links as a federation
• play its part in civil society, through UNESCO
• participate in broader areas of interest and wider issues of global concern
• fulfil its obligations towards UNESCO as an NGO

UNESCO & the UN

UNESCO consults civil society like FIT for the UN and participates in sharing information. As UNESCO is a UN body, and culture is the main area where FIT acts with UNESCO, FIT has been able to expand its visibility by entering the virtual network of similar communities. ECOSOC is one such aspect of UN work and aims, where NGO’s under UNESCO can benefit from the virtual options available, and highlight how an NGO, like FIT, is also working towards UN goals, in its ongoing achievements: its publications; its Congresses and its committees. In spite of its comparatively limited resources, FIT can grasp this free opportunity to be listed, and to communicate its activities, through the IRENE network created, as was the WSIS platform, to serve the UN NGO communities.