AITC: What it is
AITC (the International Association of Conference Translators) is the professional body representing translators, précis-writers, revisers and editors working on a temporary or permanent basis for international organizations or conferences. (Interpreters are represented by AIIC).
AITC was founded in 1962 mainly in order to standardize the working conditions and terms of employment of short-term language staff employed by international organizations, particularly those belonging to the United Nations system.
AITC currently has about 450 members, divided into three categories (see articles 2, 6, 7, 7bis and 8 of the Constitution):
- Candidate members (translators at the outset of their careers);
- Active members (independent or permanent translators);
- Associate members (restricted to permanent translators who do not wish to be active members, and to retired translators who wish to support the Association and maintain ties with the profession).
Qualifications for membership
- Candidate members: must have had 100 days' work experience in international organizations.
- Active members: must have had 300 days' work experience in international organizations.
- Associate members: must have a permanent post or be retired.
Subscription fee
- Candidate members and associate members: 100 Swiss francs
- Active members: 310 Swiss francs
AITC: what it does
AITC's activities are twofold: it endeavours, on the one hand, to defend the interests of its members, and, on the other, to ensure that work performed by them is of the high quality that employers are entitled to expect. It gives advice to its members on all aspects of their work, in particular their terms of employment, both in the organizations of the United Nations system and in other international organizations or in NGOs.
Publications
Professional Code
AITC publishes a professional code. As in all the liberal professions, the members of AITC need to be able to refer to an ethical code that defines their rights and duties, which are inseparable from each other.
Directory
AITC publishes a Directory which it sends free of charge to the members of the Association, and to some 400 employers. It provides all relevant information about the members (name, permanent address, professional domicile, mother tongue and working languages, functions, willingness to accept work to be done at home). For the members, the Directory is an excellent way of making themselves known and provides a practical means of finding the details of all their colleagues.
Newsletter
A Newsletter appear at intervals to keep members informed of the activities of the Association, in particular those of the Executive Committee, and of new developments of interest to the profession, both as regards the art of translation and employment.
Pension plan
The Pension Fund for Conference Interpreters and Translators (CPIT) is a foundation under Swiss law managed by a Foundation Council of fellow translators and interpreters that works closely with Swiss actuaries and financial institutions. It is open to language professionals of all nationalities who can prove that they are working in a language-related profession (e.g. interpreter, translator, editor, précis-writer, proofreader) on the day they join.
N.B. AITC is not an employment agency and gives no undertaking to provide its members with work or to find them permanent positions.
