Interpreting 2022. Geneva International Organizations for Interpreters (University of Geneva)
Course introduction
Interpretazione e traduzione
L'interpretazione è spesso confusa con la traduzione. La differenza è che il lavoro degli interpreti è di tipo orale, mentre i traduttori si occupano di testi scritti.
Tipi di interpretazione
Gli interpreti di conferenza lavorano in vari modi, tutti utilizzati dagli interpreti della Commissione:
Consecutiva
Si effettua dopo che l'oratore ha concluso il suo intervento, in genere con l'aiuto di appunti.
Simultanea
Si effettua mentre la persona sta parlando, utilizzando apparecchiature particolari (ad es.: cabine, cuffie, microfoni).
Sussurrata o Chuchotage
L'interprete si trova seduto o in piedi con i partecipanti e interpreta simultaneamente e direttamente all'orecchio.
Terminologia
- lingua attiva: la lingua in cui l'interprete interpreta
- lingua passiva: la lingua da cui l'interprete interpreta
- regime ridotto: nel caso in cui l'interpretazione sia fornita da un numero di lingue inferiore a quello totale di lingue ufficiali
- regime simmetrico: i delegati possono parlare e ascoltare l'interpretazione delle stesse lingue
- regime asimmetrico: i partecipanti possono esprimersi in diverse lingue, ma l'interpretazione è fornita solo in un numero limitato di lingue
- lingua dei segni: gli interpreti di lingua dei segni lavorano tra una lingua orale e una lingua dei segni oppure tra due lingue dei segni
- retour: si effettua dalla propria lingua madre in una delle lingue passive
- cheval: un interprete lavora in due cabine nella stessa riunione
- relais: detta a volte "interpretazione indiretta". Gli interpreti lavorano da una lingua che non comprendono attraverso una lingua ponte.
Esempio: interpretare dal finlandese in slovacco attraverso una prima interpretazione in francese.
Start: November 8, 2022
This course is primarily aimed at students of conference interpreting, or people who wish to begin studying conference interpreting. It is based on a long-standing lecture course given by the oldest interpreting school in the world, the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Geneva.
Our course looks at organizations from a viewpoint which very few people ever get to see; international organizations seen from the interpreting booth. You will learn about the history, development, structure and functions of international organizations, and of course the question of multilingualism.
The purpose of this course is to help you, as a budding interpreter or translator, to gain basic knowledge about the institutions which may be your future employers, and to give you the essential tools that you will need to easily and efficiently prepare yourself for working at an international organization.
Learning Objectives
- Outline the main organizations and the history of 'international Geneva'
- Identify the main characteristics of international organizations, and classify them using relevant criteria
- Understand that within international organizations the notions of State and region are relative
- Learn the official names of international organizations’ member States
Lesson 1: International organizations in Geneva
The first module in our course will help us set some markers,
some reference points, about the international organizations.
We’ll start with “International Geneva”,
since we’re in Geneva and have the good fortune to be able to visit.
THE FIRST MODULE. OBJECTIVES.
The headquarters of several organizations in the city.
We’ll look in particular at relations with the host country,
Switzerland, in an interview with the
Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations Office in Geneva
and the other international organizations in Switzerland,
with whom we’ll talk about the very special world
to be found in this city at the tip of Lake Geneva.
We’ll also talk about the emergence of multilateral diplomacy in Geneva,
the story of how it took shape; that will take us to a large number of
international organizations present in the city,
notably five of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations.
Next, we’ll look at the definition of “international organization”.
What does the term “international organization” mean?
Is any entity with the word “international”
in its name an international organization?
For example, the International Committee of the Red Cross,
which played a key part in the origins of International Geneva,
is not, strictly speaking, an international organization.
We’ll examine the criteria used to define an international
organization, we’ll see that they can be classified in different ways.
We’ll also see how difficult it is to categorize the
international organizations, because they weren’t all created
following a pre-established plan. We’ll learn that
concepts that appear intuitive and simple become complex
when considered in a diplomatic or political light. For example:
What is a region? What is a State?
We’ll see that even the concept of “country” is not as straightforward as it appears.
These are important questions when it comes
to defining the members of an international organization.
By the end of the module, you should have a somewhat clearer idea
of what constitutes an organization, how it’s structured, the role it plays,
the issues it’s authorized to deliberate. We want you to be able to identify
the various types of organization in the light of their missions,
their competences, their structure or their member States.
That’s what we propose that you discover now.
International Geneva
“International Geneva”:
if you’re from Geneva, you’ll know the expression, of course.
But there’s a good chance that, even if you don’t live in Geneva,
you’ve heard about International Geneva.
What is it?
How is it that this small city — because Geneva isn’t
a large metropolis, it has roughly 200,000 inhabitants,
half a million counting all the outlying and surrounding areas —
how is it that this city became a hub for
international diplomacy and multilateralism?
Indeed, Geneva has a landscape of international organizations
found nowhere else in the world.
The city is home to more than 40 intergovernmental organizations
and several hundred non- governmental organizations.
It’s a global diplomatic hub.
But on these questions, let’s hear the views
of someone who is particularly well qualified to address them:
Ms. Danielle Werthmüller is an advisor to the Swiss
mission to the UN and the other international organizations in Geneva.
She agreed to speak with us at the Palais des Nations.
Hello, Ms. Werthmüller.
When we talk about International Geneva,
when we talk about the city’s significance in terms of multilateralism, etc.,
what does that mean, ultimately, in figures,
in number of organizations, number of meetings, etc.?
Can you give us a quantitative idea, if you want,
of what International Geneva represents?
— Thank you, with pleasure.
In the broad sense, the term International Geneva is used
to describe the international activities
carried out on Swiss territory.
Of course, most of the organizations are concentrated
in Geneva and the surrounding area.
But let’s not forget that the cantons of Vaud, Bern and Basel
also host international organizations.
In total, when we talk about international organizations or institutions,
44 have their headquarters in Switzerland: 38 in Geneva, three in the canton of Vaud
(one is the World Anti- Doping Agency), two in Bern
(the Universal Postal Union, which is a specialized agency of the United Nations),
and finally, in Basel, the Bank for International Settlements.
That’s the situation for the international organizations.
Next, naturally, are the States.
Geneva is host to 177 States, including Switzerland.
All these States have a permanent mission to the United Nations.
Switzerland’s goal, a priority of our policy as host country,
is to achieve universal representation of States in Geneva.
That means that we’d like all the member States of the United Nations,
all 193, to be represented in Geneva, in order to ensure that the decisions
taken here in Geneva, at the UN, by the UN entities
or specialized agencies, or at the WTO, or elsewhere, are universal in nature.
Switzerland has developed a whole strategy in this regard; it makes offers to
and supports States that are not yet represented in Geneva by a mission.
We’re currently 17 short.
In the past ten years, thanks to the efforts
of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs,
we’ve welcomed 16 new States, but unfortunately two States left this year,
closed their mission, for reasons of government strategy,
redeployment of their diplomatic network and also financial reasons.
Since 1994, Switzerland has authorized States to have three permanent missions:
one to the UN and the other international organizations,
but member States of the WTO, the World Trade Organization, and the Conference
on Disarmament can open separate missions and representations.
Thirty-six members of the World Trade Organization and 14 members
of the Conference on Disarmament have a separate permanent mission.
This means that the majority of States work with a single mission.
For example, Switzerland has two permanent missions in Geneva,
the permanent mission to the UN and the other international organizations,
and a separate mission to the World Trade Organization
and the European Free Trade Association.
Obviously, major States — classic examples are the USA, Russia,
China – have three missions: a UN mission, a WTO mission, a CD mission,
three ambassadors, three distinct sets of personnel. These are totally separate entities
that defend the interests of their State in the organizations of which they are members.
Besides the organizations, institutions and States,
there is another very important player in International Geneva, namely the NGOs.
More than 750 NGOs are represented in Geneva and Switzerland,
which is no small number.
And then, to keep these organizations and missions running, you need staff.
There are several thousand international civil servants,
around 25,000, all categories combined, 4,000 in the permanent missions.
There are also family members and domestic staff.
The international population amounts to about 44,000 people.
That represents the population of a Swiss town the size of Thun.
And all these people are authorized to reside here
by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, which issues
them a special residence permit called a “legitimation card”.
A foreigner who settles in Switzerland receives a B or C permit.
A civil servant or diplomat receives a legitimation card
administered by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
Then there are the conferences.
This year is not the most representative because of the pandemic-related crisis.
The number of in-person conferences has declined.
The figures I’m going to give you therefore reflect the situation in recent years.
More than 4,000 meetings each year, conferences and international
meetings, are held by the organizations here;
they bring to Geneva more than 200,000 delegates from capitals and around the world.
In addition, Geneva is often visited by heads of State,
heads of government and ministers, around 4,000 per year.
The international organizations are important for Switzerland not only in terms
of image, defence of its interests and multilateral cooperation.
We must not forget that they also contribute economically.
The organizations incur annual expenditures of more than 6.3 billion
in the form of salaries, investments, purchases; 3 billion are spent directly in the region.
That represents about 1% of gross domestic product.
International Geneva creates jobs.
It’s estimated that around 14,000 jobs can be attributed to the presence
of the international organizations and permanent missions in Geneva.
— So, indirect jobs, in addition to ...
— Indirect jobs, in addition to the jobs I mentioned earlier.
— Thank you.
How, historically, did Geneva acquire this special status?
One of the reasons is no doubt Switzerland’s neutrality, which played a very important role.
Among the other reasons, one of the main ones can be seen behind me.
It was the establishment, in 1863 in Geneva, by a group of Geneva citizens,
of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which led to the drafting, the following year,
in 1864, of the initial Geneva Convention.
Later, after the First World War, in 1919,
when the Treaty of Versailles was signed, the League of Nations was
established in Geneva at the same time as the International Labour Organization,
which also originated with the Treaty of Versailles.
Then, after the Second World War, when the United Nations system was born,
a large number of institutions quite naturally were set up in Geneva,
which today hosts a third of the specialized agencies of the United Nations.
Five of the specialized agencies — WHO, the ILO, ITU, WMO and WIPO –
have their headquarters in Geneva, and a sixth,
the Universal Postal Union, the UPU, has its headquarters in Bern.
In terms of languages, the massive presence in Geneva of United Nations
organizations means that some languages are used much more,
notably Arabic, Chinese and Russian, which are used much more often here than in other cities
hosting international organizations, such as Brussels or Paris.
That’s one of the things that sets Geneva apart.
Within the UN system, for example, more than half of all interpreter
days worldwide are worked in Geneva, more than in New York,
Vienna and the other cities hosting United Nations agencies.
Geneva is therefore a hub, one of the main sites for our profession.
And it’s also quite naturally in Geneva
that the world’s first school of interpreters was created, in 1941.
What was known at the time as the School of Interpreters,
later became the School of Translation and Interpretation, the ETI,
and is today called the FTI, the Faculty of Translation and Interpretation.
As they’re in Geneva, FTI students have the good fortune
to be able to attend conferences,
to have teachers who themselves work in these organizations,
and even, in some cases, to be able to practice in what is known as
a “dummy booth” in the organizations, during real conferences.
Geneva is therefore a privileged place, not only
for the organizations themselves, but above all to study the organizations
and to train as a linguist, as a translator or interpreter
who will one day work in the international organizations.
In the next video, we’ll come back to these questions
in an interview with Mr. Jürg Lauber, Ambassador
and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations Office and
the other international organizations in Geneva.
Interview with Ambassador Jürg Lauber
Read the Transcript and translate it in your mother tongue.
Today, we have the pleasure and honour
to meet with Mr. Jürg Lauber, the Permanent Representative
of Switzerland to the United Nations Office and the other international organizations in Geneva.
We also have the pleasure of talking in a historic site,
the Council Chamber at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
A word about this room.
We’ll cover the structure of the United Nations later in the course,
but I can already tell you that the “council” referred to here
is neither the Security Council, which meets in New York,
nor the Human Rights Council, which meets in Geneva, but in a much more modern room than this.
In this case, the council referred to is the Council of the League of Nations.
As we can see by its decor, this room dates to the 1930s.
It features frescoes by a Catalonian painter, Sert,
depicting human progress thanks to technology,
thanks to trade, thanks to peace and liberty.
Mr. Ambassador, thank you for agreeing to talk with us.
We started the first lesson in this course
by referring to International Geneva. I’d like to ask you:
How is it that this small city, Geneva,
ended up as the world capital, so to speak, of diplomacy?
What were the origins of International Geneva and how did it evolve?
— Thank you very much, and thanks for this opportunity to participate in this.
In retrospective, it looks like a logic development over time.
Maybe there was a lot of coincidence and good luck also involved,
but there’s a couple of elements, I think.
One element is the geographical location of Geneva,
which is at the center of Europe, in the sense that it is between
the old North-South and East-West trade routes,
it has been there for a long time.
So Geneva, traditionally and historically, has always been
“un point de rencontre”, where people went to meet,
where people came across each other from all over the continent,
where refugees went when they had to run away
for religious reasons or cultural reasons, run away from their countries.
Think about banking, or watchmaking:
these were migrants and refugees who came to Switzerland, and particularly to Geneva.
Even today, when we think all of communication is virtual and digital,
the geographical location still has a lot to do with that.
Out of this, I think there was a traditional hospitality developed in Geneva.
Institutions built the, “l’esprit de Genève” started developing very early.
Today, I think it’s — maybe we’ll come back to that — it has a lot to do also with
political stability, with the neutrality of Switzerland.
Then there were three key moments, or breakthroughs.
One was certainly in 1863, when a group of Geneva personalities
established the International Committee of the Red Cross,
and then the Geneva Conventions came into life.
If there’s an official moment of beginning for International Geneva,
that was in 1863.
The second time, or wave, was in 1919, when President Wilson
decided that the League of Nations should be established in Geneva.
You mentioned this room, where it comes from.
That was a big moment. I think that really reinforced that.
We also saw initial international organizations,
in 1919 also, the International Labour Organization
was established also in Geneva. They left later and came back.
That was the second moment.
Then the third moment, the third time, the launch,
the beginning of modern time International Geneva
was after the Second World War, in 1945, when the United Nations
was established in San Francisco.
The seat was established in New York, but this magnificent building,
the Palais des Nations, was ready to host, and they decided
to establish the European seat of the United Nations.
Subsequently, we saw the establishment of what we know today as
the international system, with many specialized organizations,
and many of them came to Geneva.
Many for the reasons I mentioned earlier:
geographical location, political stability of Switzerland,
neutrality of Switzerland.
We saw clusters of organizations coming here,
humanitarian organizations, health organizations, etc.
I think these were the key points in the history of International Geneva.
— Thank you.
Can we say that the trend today
is for more organizations to set up in Geneva,
that some organizations are showing signs of wanting to leave,
or is the situation stable?
Are any forces of change at work in International Geneva today?
— It’s almost like a living organization.
Sometimes there is a movement, back and forth,
but over the last several years we’ve seen a certain stability.
By and large, I feel that global governance,
the setup of international cooperation on many of the issues,
— as I mentioned: environment, health, human rights — is pretty much existing.
Individual organizations sometimes think “we need to move some of
our staff to another place”, but we’ve seen a large stability.
Maybe one area where we will see some development still,
because we don’t have global governance at this point,
is Internet and digitalization.
Maybe something of that will happen in Geneva.
What we’ve seen, instead of new organizations,
classic large organizations established and looking for
where they should be hosted, we’ve seen new trends also.
For instance, in Geneva, we see many smaller organizations trying
to take new approaches to international cooperation, bringing
existing organizations together
and including more of the non-official stakeholders.
Much of that happens in Geneva. Geneva has been very dynamic
in this regard over the last 10-15 years,
we like to talk about platforms, small outfits,
just a few people in a secretariat who are more event- and gathering-oriented
than usual, traditional organizations.
Another trend we see is organizations with a different setup,
not just governments coming together, but bringing government
and private sector together.
We see this in the health sector, for instance UNAIDS,
an organization built for just one particular cause.
The GAVI also, in the health sector, bringing together public and private sector.
All of this has been happening in Geneva.
In this sense, it’s very dynamic. In the traditional sense,
I don’t expect to see many more large organizations being
established and looking for a seat,
but around that, new forms, we’ve seen here a lot of dynamic.
— And what are Geneva’s strengths in terms of diplomacy, of multilateralism?
Take, for example, human rights. How can they be explained?
Has there been a shift in that regard or do you think that this is
another situation that won’t change much in terms of Geneva-specific issues?
— It’s actually very large. Almost anything that happens,
you find expertise in Geneva, specific expertise.
We’ve talked about the clusters that came to Geneva.
Traditionally — here, the room we’re in here today,
later became the seat of the Conference on Disarmament.
So, of course, peace and security.
Think also of the peace negotiations
and conflict mediation meetings that take place in Geneva.
That’s a very strong pillar.
Humanitarian, of course, I mentioned the ICRC earlier,
but then we have the High Commissioner for Refugees,
we have the International Organization for Migration.
All of these around humanitarian law and humanitarian aid,
the Human Rights Council, but we also have trade,
we have mentioned health earlier.
All of these issues are
hosted in Geneva, or at least are able to contribute,
when we see developments.
I think what’s new and interesting is that we have more and more,
we realize that we have to take a more comprehensive approach to issues.
We cannot look at an issue just from one angle,
from one specific organization.
All of this today turns around
the famous 2030 Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals,
which take this approach, and for that,
Geneva is ideally placed, because again,
in spite of all the communication means we have,
and in spite of the fact that these days, meeting in person is a little bit complicated,
it is very useful to have a lot of different specialists and experts
geographically close. They can come together, look at an issue from
different angles and work together to better solutions.
— To conclude,
we’ll come back to this in another part of the course,
but I’d like to ask the question now: What do you think
of the current threats to multilateralism,
the difficulties facing certain organizations?
In Geneva, I’m thinking of WTO, which is facing difficulties.
Paradoxically, since we’re filming this sequence in the middle of a health crisis,
WHO is also having problems, and yet WHO should be
the one organization everyone currently looks to.
Do you think this is a time of particular crisis, or threat
for the organizations, or is this a cyclical phenomenon?
— I’m quite sure it’s cyclical, because if you look at what we mentioned
to be the modern multilateralism, the last 75 years,
we’ve seen ups and downs every few years, and I think
when you live within a certain, or you live in the situation,
you have a tendency to overestimate the importance.
I don’t want to be naive.
Multilateralism is a political domain, and we live in
a political, geopolitical reality and we all know
that due to tensions between some of the big powers,
it’s more complicated than it was at other times.
But at the same time, my experience tells me that
many, many countries, and not least a country of the size of Switzerland,
we know the value of international cooperation.
There is no way around it and the model we have now is very useful for that.
We need to adapt all the time.
These organizations need to reform. That needs to go on.
But I’m, by and large, very optimistic that we will continue.
Quiz 1:
1. Which of the following events first established Geneva's status as an international city?
1 point
2.
The headquarters of which two organizations were established in Geneva shortly after the First World War?
1 point
3.
True or false: "international Geneva" represents a financial burden for Switzerland.
1 point
Lesson 2: International organizations in Geneva
Read and translate the Transcript in your mother tongue:
Geneva is a truly international city.
It plays host to nearly 40 intergovernmental organizations
and over 400 non-governmental organizations.
As an aspiring interpreter, it’s really important for
you to have a good grasp of the names, acronyms, and roles of these different
organizations because they can, and will, come up in the booth.
You’ll quickly realize that there are a lot of acronyms to learn in all of your
different languages — and unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet.
You just have to drill them until they become second nature.
Because if, when you’re in the booth, you have to strain to remember an acronym,
you’ll make life much more difficult for yourself.
But if you know them by heart and can recall them effortlessly,
then this will lighten your cognitive load considerably.
In this video, we’re not going to look at all of the different international
organizations in Geneva. That would take far too long.
We’re just going to have a look at the main organizations,
starting with the most obvious: the United Nations.
Behind me, you can see the Palais des Nations,
which is the headquarters of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
The Palais des Nations is located just next to the Place des Nations,
which is a really useful reference point for
describing where the different organizations are located in Geneva.
Now, the United Nations Office at Geneva is not the main United Nations office.
The main headquarters of the UN is in New York.
And the UN body in New York also holds the seat of the two main UN bodies,
the Security Council and the General Assembly.
And then the UN also has three other duty stations,
one in Vienna, one in Nairobi, and one in Geneva.
Now, despite the fact that Geneva doesn’t hold the main headquarters of the UN,
it’s still a really important location for UN activities.
Geneva actually has the highest concentration of UN staff in the world,
and two-thirds of the UN’s activities take place in Geneva.
In addition to this, Geneva is a center for the UN’s human rights activities,
which is quite logical because it holds the seat of the UN Human Rights Council.
The UN Disarmament Conference is also based in Geneva,
in addition to the UN Economic Commission for Europe.
We’re not going to go into too much detail on the structure, functioning,
or the history of the UN in this video. We’ll save that for later.
But it is worth taking some time to clear up some confusion
around the term “United Nations”.
That’s because the term can be a bit ambiguous because it can refer to different things.
Firstly, when we say United Nations, this can refer to the UN Organization,
which is the Organization in itself with its subsidiary bodies.
But the term can also refer to the United Nations system, which,
as the name suggests, is a wider system, which includes the UN Organization,
and also other independent international organizations which
are affiliated with the UN.
These organizations are called the UN specialized agencies,
and there are 15 of them in total.
We’re not going to look at all of the different specialized
agencies in detail in this video.
We’ll save that for later on in the course.
For now, all you need to remember is that 5 of the 15 specialized agencies
are based in Geneva.
They are the International Labour Organization (ILO),
the International Telecommunications Union (ITU),
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO),
the World Meteorological Organization (WMO),
and the World Health Organization (WHO).
It’s really important not to get the specialized agencies mixed up
with UN funds and programmes.
As I said, the specialized agencies are independent organizations in their
own right, with their own budget,
whereas UN funds and programmes depend on the UN for their budget.
For this reason, UN funds and programmes tend to be smaller, with more
limited means than the specialized agencies.
There are a number of UN funds and programmes based in Geneva as well.
I’ll just give a couple of examples.
Firstly, the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
which is the UN body charged with assessing the science related to climate change.
And then there’s also UNCTAD, the UN Conference on Trade and Development,
which was founded in the 60s to look at issues relating to trade,
investment, and development.
And finally, there’s UNHCR, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, which was actually, interestingly,
founded just after the Second World War, initially as a temporary programme.
But it’s still working to protect refugees today.
I mentioned that Geneva is a center for the UN’s human rights activities.
But can you think of any other important humanitarian
organizations based in Geneva?
The International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, is based in Geneva,
and that’s actually where we’re filming today.
If you were thinking Red Cross, then that’s not strictly correct, because
there are a number of different bodies which have the words Red Cross in their name.
It’s worth taking some time to research the structure of this movement.
But for now, you just need to bear in mind that the International Committee
of the Red Cross, and also the International Federation of Red Cross and
Red Crescent Societies are both based in Geneva.
Now, this list of organizations is of course not exhaustive.
There are many international organizations based in Geneva, and you’ll need to take
the time to familiarize yourselves with these different organizations.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that there are a number of non-UN organizations
based in Geneva, such as the IPU, the Inter-Parliamentary Union,
and also ISO, the International Organization for Standardization.
And then in Switzerland, not necessarily in Geneva,
but in Switzerland in general, there are also the headquarters of a number
of large sporting organizations, such as the International Olympic Committee, the IOC,
and also FIFA and UEFA.
It’s important that you take the time to have a look at these different
organizations, learn their names, learn their acronyms.
And also get a general idea of what they do.
1.
Which of the following organizations are based in Geneva?
1 point
2.
Which of the following organizations are based in Geneva?
1 point
3.
Which of the following organizations are based in Geneva?
1 point
International organizations around the world
Choose two international organizations (not necessarily organizations based in Geneva) and add a picture of each organization to the interactive map linked below. To access the map you will need to have a Google account and to be logged in.
Write the name of each organization in your active and passive languages. In no more than 150 words, outline the main features and function of each organization. When your peers have completed the activity, you will be able to consult and learn from their contributions — and vice versa.
Link to the interactive map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1-iZCjV-5b5bZexHOgQk7CG9UHTh__yZO&usp=sharing
WRITTEN PRACTICE
Outline the main organizations and the history of 'international Geneva'
3 materials to review
3 materials to review
Identify the main characteristics of international organizations, and classify them using relevant criteria
1 material to review
1 material to review
Explain why within international organizations the notions of State and region are relative
1 material to review
1 material to review
Recall the official names of international. organizations’ member States
Lesson 2
Practice Quiz • 10 min • 3 total points
Which of the following statements is true?
1 point
2.
Which of the following statements is true?
1 point
3.
Which of the following are UN specialized agencies based in Geneva?
1 point
Lesson 3: What is an international organization?
Read and translate the transcript.
It’s time to clarify some of the concepts used in this course,
and to explain what is meant by international organization.
If I asked you to name some international organizations,
you’d probably cite the UN, the IMF,
but are all organizations that have the word “international”
in their name international organizations?
What about Amesty International
and the International Committee of the Red Cross?
Are they international organizations in the strict sense of the term?
Since I’m asking the question,
you’ll have guessed that the answer isn’t as simple as it seems
and that we need criteria to define exactly what we mean by international organization.
The first of these criteria is quite simple.
It’s the distinction between governmental and non-governmental organizations.
That seems clear enough. The members of the former
are States or governments, and the members of the latter
are individuals, national federations, associations, etc.
So far, so good.
Do all organizations fall neatly into one of these two categories?
Again, since we’re asking the question, you’ll ave guessed that the answer isn’t that simple.
In fact, there are a number of organizations
that can’t be easily sorted into either category.
Take, for example, the Council of Europe.
The Council of Europe has an intergovernmental body,
the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe,
but it also has a parliamentary body, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
which, as its name suggests, brings together MPs or senators
rather than government representatives.
The Council of Europe also has another body,
called the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, which brings together local elected representatives.
This complicates matters.
The organization has an intergovernmental body and a legislative body.
I could add that the Council of Europe also has
a conference of non-governmental organizations.
You can see that the criterion, governmental or non-governmental, isn’t enough.
Some organizations fall between the two.
We therefore need more criteria to clarify things
and be able to categorize international organizations.
Non-governmental organizations can also become governmental.
An example is the World Tourism Organization,
which has been a UN specialized agency for 15 years or so
but was initially non-governmental.
Even the World Meteorological Organization started as a non-governmental organization.
There are also organizations that everyone considers
international organizations, but which do not bring together governments,
like the Inter-Parliamentary Union, based in Geneva,
which brings together representatives of national parliaments.
We therefore need more detailed criteria
to distinguish between all of these entities.
We can class international organizations
using geographical criteria, based on the idea that there are, on the one hand,
universal organizations like the UN, and, on the other hand, regional organizations,
the African Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, etc.,
which are geographically limited.
However — we’ll come back to this later —
the concept of region in itself is not that simple.
In addition, once again there are organizations that
throughout history have changed category, so to speak.
The OECD, an organization that is today global
(or almost global), began as a European organization.
It was the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation,
created to implement the Marshall Plan after the Second World War.
So you can see that categories can be unclear,
and organizations can change and move from one category to another.
Another useful criterion is the distinction between
the organizations’ various competences.
Some organizations are mainly normative in nature,
meaning that they adopt legal texts, conventions, treaties, etc.,
while others are more operational or technical,
meaning that they conduct concrete activities in the field,
for example, vaccination campaigns or development activities.
This can also be a useful criterion for
bringing some order to the vast domain of international organizations.
This said, once again, many organizations do both.
To take one example, the World Health Organization
does spearhead public health campaigns and vaccination campaigns,
but it also adopts conventions, like the Tobacco Convention, for example.
So as you can see, we can apply different criteria,
but none of them work perfectly. It’s very difficult to establish
a comprehensive typology of the international organizations,
and most authors who propound such systems
ultimately recognize that they don’t work in all cases.
Some organizations always slip through the net, so to speak,
and it’s difficult to draw up a precise and definitive typology.
For you, it’s important to remember some of the criteria mentioned,
the main categories: governmental or non-governmental,
normative or operational, universal or regional, and so on.
This will give you the tools you need to find your way more easily.
In this course, we’ll focus on intergovernmental organizations
with a headquarters agreement, a permanent secretariat, etc.,
but we’ll also look at other kinds of organization,
organizations that can be called international in a wider sense of the word,
like development banks, interparliamentary organizations, etc.
For a future interpreter, it’s also important to understand
that you’ll hear different types of speech at different organizations.
MPs at parliamentary assemblies
do not speak in the same way as government representatives.
Government representatives always express the point of view of their ministry.
Their words are guided from above, so to speak,
whereas MPs speak much more personally because they’ve been elected.
Understanding these distinctions will help you
to better understand the different kinds of speech that you’ll have to interpret.
People do not speak in the same way in intergovernmental organizations,
parliamentary organizations, technical organizations, etc.
This is another difference that it’s very important
for a future interpreter to understand.
Learn from the answers to the quiz:
Categorising international organizations
Practice Quiz • 15 min
1.
Categorise the following international organisation by selecting the correct criteria: The International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
1 point
2.
Categorise the following international organisation by selecting the correct criteria: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
1 point
3.
Categorise the following international organisation by selecting the correct criteria: The League of Nations
1 point
4.
Categorise the following international organisation by selecting the correct criteria: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
1 point
5.
Categorise the following international organisation by selecting the correct criteria: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
1 point
6.
Categorise the following international organisation by selecting the correct criteria: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
1 point
Lesson 4:
Joining an international organization
Read and translate the transcript.
What are the criteria for becoming a member of an international organization?
To answer this question, we’ll need to explore some concepts that may
seem obvious but aren’t always so: States and regions, for example.
To join an intergovernmental organization, you must,
by definition, be a government, and hence a recognized State.
But in some organizations,
there are additional criteria to fulfil.
To join the Council of Europe,
States must have abolished the death penalty.
Similarly, States wishing to join
the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development must,
according to the basic documents of the Bank, be multiparty democracies.
In other organizations, it’s more like joining a club,
i.e. you’re admitted if the existing members want you to be.
That’s the case for NATO, for example.
It goes without saying that to join
a regional organization, you must belong to the relevant region.
So far, it’s all relatively clear.
Also, let’s not forget that States can withdraw
from international organizations of which they are members.
For example, the United States
left UNESCO for nearly 20 years because it did not agree
with the organization’s policy, then returned to UNESCO,
and withdrew again a few years ago.
The Soviet Union, too, left the International Labour Organization
for around a decade until 1954.
Which international organization is the most universal?
The UN immediately springs to mind. It now has 193 Member States
since the accession of its newest member, South Sudan.
But once again, a closer look reveals that the situation is more complicated
because the UN recognizes four States that are not
members of the organization: the Holy See (the Vatican),
the Cook Islands, Palestine, and a small Pacific State, Niue.
There are also territories that the UN does not recognize as States,
for political or other reasons.
Take, for example, Kosovo, South Ossetia, or even Taiwan.
So you can see that even in universal organizations
that aim to bring together all the world’s States,
there are ever-present political considerations
that lead to some States not being recognized by their fellow States.
At the UN, Taiwan is not recognized because the People’s Republic of China
has imposed the One-China policy.
But there are many other States that are not recognized by the
whole international community.
Many States don’t recognize Israel, Turkey doesn’t recognize Cyprus, etc.
Because of these views involving political or other conflicts,
it would be wrong to assume that within an organization like the UN,
all States are recognized by all others.
The situation is much more complex.
The very notion of statehood in international law
is not as clear and straightforward as one might think.
The exact status of a number of territories around the world
has not been established,
or has not been accepted by all members of the international community.
Anyone hired to work in an international organization must
be fully aware of such issues, which are obviously very sensitive.
Even when it comes to the exact names of countries,
a future interpreter must be letter-perfect.
Because country names change over time. Recent examples include
Swaziland, which changed its name to the Kingdom of Eswatini in 2018.
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
recently became the Republic of North Macedonia.
Making a mistake on this kind of terminology when interpreting
at a large conference could create a real diplomatic incident.
Then there are the curious cases of countries
going by different names in different organizations.
For historical reasons, “Great Britain” is used at the Universal Postal Union,
but everywhere else you’d say “United Kingdom”.
Official country names within organizations may not be in line
with official recommendations of ministries of foreign affairs.
For example, representatives of France at the UN refer to Belarus as “Biélorussie”,
although the official French name of the country at the UN is “la République du Bélarus”.
Once again, an interpreter must be aware of these variations, and always give
the official name of the country when at an organization.
On a side note, and moving away from
international organizations, FIFA is sometimes said
to be more universal than the UN because it has 211 members.
That’s true, but its members are not governments.
FIFA’s members are football federations,
including, for example, the British federations: Scotland,
Wales, England and Northern Ireland.
That makes four members of FIFA, whereas within an intergovernmental organization
they would be one single delegation: the United Kingdom.
It’s also worth noting that recently, even FIFA ultimately decided
to be more careful and no longer accept new members
unless they were clearly politically independent, to avoid potential problems.
Now a word on regional organizations
to show you that the concept of “region” isn’t always perfectly clear.
It’s quite rare for a regional organization to count among its members
all of the States in a geographical region.
For a long time, even the African Union didn’t encompass
all African States because Morocco wasn’t a member.
If you look at Europe,
the European institutions all vary in their geographical scope.
On the one hand, there’s the European Union, but there’s
also the Council of Europe, which has a wider membership.
In short, once again, the concept of “region” isn’t always clear.
It’s much less obvious than it would appear.
Moreover, some countries are located between two regions, such as Turkey and Russia.
The question then is which regional organization they can belong to.
In addition, regional subdivisions
are sometimes created within universal organizations.
For example, the UN has regional economic commissions
so that economic issues can be dealt with between countries
that have more or less the same interests.
It’s important not to get subdivisions
of universal organizations mixed up with regional international organizations.
To further complicate matters,
within organizations there are also groups of countries that decide
to coordinate on a regional level to reach a shared position on specific
questions before their deliberation in plenary.
At the UN, for example, there is an African Group
and a Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries.
These groups are neither regional organizations per se,
nor are they subdivisions of the organization.
Rather, they’re just groups of Member States that have decided to coordinate,
for example by holding a meeting for African countries,
to be able to collectively defend the interests of their continent.
So there are regional international organizations,
regional subdivisions within universal organizations,
and groups of member States that decide to coordinate on a regional level.
It’s important not to get these different structures mixed up.
They all exist in international organizations, but came about for different reasons
and work differently.
What should you take away from this lesson?
Remember that to join an international organization, it’s not enough
to be a State with a government, to fulfil seemingly obvious criteria.
Why?
Because this is the world of diplomacy,
because there are political considerations that come into play
and things are therefore always much more complex than they seem.
That’s perhaps a rather modest lesson to take away from this segment,
but if all you remember is the intrinsic complexity
of international relations and the interplay of States within organizations,
you’ll have learned a valuable lesson.
Country name changes
Practice Quiz • 15 min
1. Question 1
What is the full current name of the country shown in red on the map?
What is the full current name of the country shown in red on the map?
1 point
2.
What is the full current name of the country shown in red on the map?
1 point
3.
What is the full current name of the country the capital of which is Phnom Penh?
1 point
4.
What is the full current name of the state of which this is the flag?
1 point
5.
What is the full current name of the state of which this is the flag?
1 point
