The United Nations (UN)’s International Translation Day (ITD) is annually observed across the globe on 30 September to honour the work of translators and language professionals across the world, who plays a major role in connecting nations and in fostering global peace and security.
The theme of ITD 2022 is ‘A World without Barriers: The Role of Language Professionals in Building Culture, Understanding and lasting Peace’.
- The theme of ITD is annually chosen by FIT (the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs/International Federation of Translators).
Background:
i. FIT established International Translation Day in 1991 to promote the profession all over the globe.
ii. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the resolution A/RES/71/288 on 24th May 2017 and declared 30 September of every year as International Translation Day.
iii. The 1st UN recognised International Translation Day was observed on 30 September 2017.
Why September 30?
30 September is celebrated as the feast of St. Jerome, the Bible translator, who is considered the patron saint of translators, librarians and encyclopedists.
About St. Jerome:
i. St. Jerome, a Latin priest and doctor of the church, is particularly known for translating the bible from Greek into Latin. The Latin translation is known as ‘the Vulgate’ (the Biblia Vulgata), he is the 1st formal translator.
- He translated many Biblical texts including the Old Testament from Hebrew to Latin and, new testament from Greek to Latin.
ii. St. Jerome died on September 30, (year 420), near Bethlehem, Palestine.
Translation at UN:
i. The United Nations is one of the world’s largest employers of language professionals and Translators.
ii. The documents of the UN are provided in 6 official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) of the UN and some core documents are translated into German.
iii. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights holds the Guinness World Record for translating into more than 500 languages.
About the International Federation of Translators (FIT):
President- Alison Rodriguez
Headquarters- Paris, France
Establishment- 1953
