Translation of UN convention criticized / UN-Konvention-Übersetzung kritisiert

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has recently been translated into German in a process involving Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

Dr. Sigrid Arnade of the Verein für Menschenrechte und Gleichstellung Behinderter e.V. criticizes the translation on the basis of incorrect terminology (January 11).

Berlin (kobinet) Gestern wurde die zwischen Deutschland, Österreich, Liechtenstein und der Schweiz abgestimmte deutschsprachige Version der UN-Konvention über die Rechte von Menschen mit Behinderungen bekannt. “Der deutsche Text enthält eklatante Übersetzungsfehler, und die Betroffenen wurden in den Übersetzungsprozess nicht kontinuierlich eingebunden”, kritisiert Dr. Sigrid Arnade, Vorstandsfrau im NETZWERK ARTIKEL 3 e.V., heute gegenüber kobinet.

Specific examples given:
EN inclusion DE Integration
EN living independently DE unabhängige Lebensführung – should be Selbstbestimmt leben
EN accessibility DE Zugänglichkeit – should be Barrierefreiheit

This is blamed on a lack of consultation.

(Via Dirk Nolte)

LATER NOTE: Government’s rejection of criticisms.

8 thoughts on “Translation of UN convention criticized / UN-Konvention-Übersetzung kritisiert

  1. They’ll not only kill the City Center, but the city’s centre as well. Just take a look north. The ‘Erlangen Arcaden’ opened in September 07. The never very successful ‘Grande Galerie’ with its 10.000 square meters of shops, a mere hundred yards to the southeast, has practically closed down since, and lots of small businesses in the city centre are doing the same.

    The citizenry of Erlangen had voted *for* the Arcaden. Maybe the citizenry of F

    • What worries me is that it doesn’t look as if the citizenry gets a vote at all! The council can pass this on July 30th. When the OB was reelected with 80% of the votes, this plan was known to him but not to the voters. Not that they would necessarily vote against it, I’m afraid.

      It won’t kill the City Center, because that is already more or less dead. Since real, on two floors, closed down, a lot more has closed down too.

      I have been to the Erlanger Arkaden and I know the Grande Galerie too, but I didn’t really follow the discussion. At least the Arkaden site did not involve blocking off a main section of the city centre.

      If these towns can no longer support department stores like Kaufhof and Quelle, I can’t believe these shopping centres will survive many years either!

  2. I wonder what shops Sonae Sierra plans to put in your new centre. The Alexa in Berlin is reasonably pleasant to walk around (my subjective impression), but it is full of boutiques each trying to out-hip the one next door. So having paid my initial curiosity visit, I will probably never see a reason to go there again (in spite of my big city socialisation and my generally positive reaction to modern shopping centres).

    As you suggest, context is also an important factor. The Alexa in Berlin was built in an area where there was plenty of empty big city space, with other very large developments close at hand.
    Placing that sort of building in a historical town centre could be a delicate design task. But I don’t have the local knowledge to judge, and the sketches on your local rag’s site don’t give much of an impression of the relationship between the plans and the context.

    BTW, Sonae may come up with a translation job or two in the course of the planning – directly or indirectly. I got one or two (very small) jobs several years ago in the run up to the Alexa (as far as I remember they were for a local architect, but I don’t know whether he was actually involved in the final project).

    • I hadn’t seen the relationship between Blasius and Blaise before now. There was a rock (rooster to you) in Bavaria called Blasius who was ordered to crow less a few years ago.

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