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Summary records for committees

UN system (simplified!)

Secretariat

Security Council

Trusteeship Council

Economic and Social Council

General Assembly

International Court of Justice

Does all the work

Verbatim records

Commission on Human RightsSpecialized agencies

New York – Geneva – Vienna – Addis Ababa – Santiago de Chile, Beirut, Bangkok

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Specialized agencies (incomplete!)

• WHO• IAEA• ILO• ITU• FAO• UNESCO• UNDP• IMO• WMO

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A UN Meeting

Sec. – Chair – Vice-Chair - Rapporteur

Typically, members/ States make statements on an agenda item and adopt it by consensus/ after a vote

Member States – Observers - NGOs

Precis-writers Press officersConf. officers

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Language jobs in the UN

• Interpreting

• Translation

• Editing verbatim records

• Precis

• Editing reports/documents/publications

• Other (law, economics, management, etc.)

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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

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What does a precis-writer need?

Accuracy– say what the speaker said

Command of English spelling and grammar

Political awareness

Foreign-language skills (NB French)

Patience to follow house style and check facts Ability to work in a team

High boredom threshold …

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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.