Translators and interpreters around the world are being threatened, jailed, kidnapped, tortured and/or killed for doing their jobs helping people communicate.
From helping journalists inform the public to supporting organizations deliver humanitarian aid to facilitating international negotiations, translators and interpreters are on the frontlines of critical situations. As a result, translators and interpreters are regularly targeted by people looking for retaliation. Yet international legislation does not currently extend to translators and interpreters the way it does for other professions, such as journalists. This oversight has to change.
Threatening, jailing, kidnapping, torturing and killing translators and interpreters is NOT okay! Translators and interpreters do important work to keep people talking in conflict situations. Preserving this social good means translators must be protected too.
Help us send a message to the UN that the time is now to start protecting translators and interpreters in danger! Please sign the petition. Also, please ask your friends and colleagues to sign the petition too. Our goal is 25,000 signatures but we are not there yet.
Red-T is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping translators and interpreters in high-risk situations. They created the petition to urge the United Nations to issue a resolution to help protect translators and interpreters around the world. They believe a UN resolution would serve as a sorely-needed international framework for protecting translators and interpreters who are in danger. I serve on the board of this organization.
The petition is supported by an alliance of language organizations, including the International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters (IAPTI), International Federation of Translators (FIT), International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC), Critical Link International (CLI), World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI), as well as Archbishop Bernardito C. Auza, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.
Won’t you support the petition too? Join the petition here.