Online Volunteering – Co-translation of a Course: “Defending Human Rights in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”

During the summer 2022, SALTO Participation & Information Resource Centre (SALTO PI) together with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) announced an opportunity to join a team of volunteer translators to translate the online course “Defending Human Rights in the Age of (Artificial Intelligence)” into their native languages. This essential course was developed by UNESCO and UNITAR for young people aged 16 to 24 to increase their knowledge of how our freedom of expression, right to privacy and right to equality are impacted by Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

SALTO PI joined hands with mentioned organisations because: 

• To celebrate the diversity of European languages on the European Day of Languages on 26 September 2022 and to promote Youth as 2022 was the European Year of Youth. 

• The report “Digital Transformation in the Youth Sector: Mapping and Gapping of Existing Resources” indicated a lack of resources on emerging technologies dedicated to the youth sector and mentioned course is a helpful, informed and research-based tool for learning dedicated to young people.  

• Translation helps the knowledge of human rights to be accessible to more people globally (Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Access to Cyberspace (2003)).

• This project was also an experiment on youth field interest in joining hands with international organisations to volunteer their time online for improving their communities. 

The translations projects took place between the end of September 2022 and January 2023, involving 49 volunteers. Thanks to the volunteer translators, the course was translated into 20 additional. The course is now available in English, Français, Español, Русский, 汉语,  العربية,  Português, Albanian, Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Estonian, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Kazakh, Montenegrin, Polish, Serbian, Turkish, and Ukrainian. 

All participants had a chance to receive a YouthPass to celebrate their learning experience in translation, leading a team, creating intriguing messages for social media, and working with international organisations. 

This journey was a life-changing experience for several translators. You can find stories on how this opportunity impacted the participants in this article by UNESCO and this article by UNITAR.  

SALTO PI invites everyone to create more meaningful opportunities to participate in changing their community either in a physical or online form to make a positive impact.