1. 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

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

3. 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

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

5. 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

6. 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 …

7. Over to you …
Listen to this extract from a statement to the World Health Assembly in May 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.