UN system (simplified!) Secretariat Security Council Trusteeship Council Economic and Social Council General Assembly International Court of Justice Verbatim records Does all the work Summary records for committees New York – Geneva – Vienna – Addis Ababa – Santiago de Chile, Beirut, Bangkok Commission on Human Rights Specialized agencies

Specialized agencies (incomplete!) WHO IAEA ILO ITU FAO UNESCO UNDP IMO WMO

Member States – Observers - NGOs A UN Meeting Typically, members/ States make statements on an agenda item and adopt it by consensus/ after a vote Sec. – Chair – Vice-Chair - Rapporteur Precis-writers Press officers Conf. officers Member States – Observers - NGOs

Language jobs in the UN Interpreting Translation Editing verbatim records Precis Editing reports/documents/publications Other (law, economics, management, etc.)

What is precis-writing? A “summary record” is a report of what was said and decided in a UN meeting. Historical value – may be consulted many years later (cf. report of meeting, Press report) Prescribed layout – consistency with previous years is important Who reads them? – Member States, NGOs, Secretariat How are they produced? – typically team of 4 precis-writers divides the meeting into “takes” – whole record is put together and checked for logic, consistency and house style by a “reviser” Precis-writers take notes manually/on laptop – a cassette recording of the meeting is available – attending one meeting and writing up counts as one day’s work – can involve late nights, weekends and lots of waiting around

What does a precis-writer need? Accuracy– say what the speaker said Political awareness Command of English spelling and grammar Foreign-language skills (NB French) Patience to follow house style and check facts Ability to work in a team High boredom threshold …

Over to you … Listen to this extract from a statement to the World Health Assembly in May 2005. Take notes if you wish. On your transcript, mark the main ideas in the statement and underline names/ facts/ dates you would need to check. Write a summary of the first main idea. Remember “Mr/Ms X said that …” and continue in reported speech.