Translating Compass
Guidelines for the translation of Compass – Manual for Human Rights Education with Young People
(2nd edition, 2012, and 2nd edition reprinted with revisions, 2015)
The availability of Compass in the wide variety of the languages spoken by users and beneficiaries of the manual has played a central role in disseminating human rights education in youth work and in making human rights education accessible to young people, facilitators and educators all across Europe and beyond.
The availability of the manual in the everyday language of educators and young people is crucial to make it used, usable and truly relevant. Furthermore, translations of Compass support the implementation of the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education.
The guidelines in this document are meant to support future publishers and translators of Compass in assessing the feasibility of such an undertaking and in preparing the process from the financial, linguistic and logistic point of view.
General principles
The purpose of publishing translations of Compass is to support the implementation of the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education by making educational resources available to users in non-formal and formal education settings. It is therefore essential that the published translations be as widely and easily accessible to its potential users as possible.
The translations should be:
- Complete, i.e. cover the entirety of the manual
- Correct and professional
- Consistent with the terminology of human rights (education) and youth work / non-formal education.
The Council of Europe will provide support for quality control, as well as the template for the design of the manual in view its publication in printed or online.
The institutional and administrative framework of the translations is included in a copyright agreement to be signed by the Council of Europe and the applicant organisation(s); the specific conditions can be sent to interested partners upon request.
The responsibility for funding the translation and publication lies exclusively on the national partners, who are also welcome to create partnerships for this purpose.
The national publishers may sell the manual to cover production costs but not for commercial (profit-making) purposes.
Adaptation of contents
The Council of Europe welcomes the adaptation of specific contents to national contexts. In principle, this should be done by adding text, and not by replacing existing one. This is of particular relevance to, for example:
- Programmes and initiatives for human rights education (chapter 1)
- Human rights protection mechanisms, bodies and NGOs (chapter 4)
- Details on specific national problems or realities related to the global themes of chapter 5; obviously, these should be limited in size
The Council of Europe must be consulted about any change of the original text and additions in view of adaptations to national contexts.
Translation, Printing and Online versions
The entire manual must be translated.
With regard to printing, it is recommended– following the structure of the 2015 English edition- to publish one volume with chapter 1-4 and the appendices and to publish Chapter 5 in an interactive online version. Printing of the whole manual remains nonetheless possible if publishers opt for this version.
Whenever online versions are provided, they must be made available and downloadable free of charge. The Internet version of chapter 5 should be fully available at the time of printing in a dedicated site or in the Council of Europe site of Compass – www.coe.int/compass
The Youth Department needs to be consulted about changes in the options for printing.
Upon successful request for translation, the applications will sign a copyright agreement with the Council of Europe.
Commitments of the Council of Europe and the Publishers
The Council of Europe will:
- Grant to the Publishers the right and licence for translation, publication and dissemination of the manual in the language agreed
- Grant to the Publishers the right to reproduce and adapt the Translation, in particular in electronic format (.pdf, Internet, etc.). The Council of Europe can, however, also reproduce and adapt the translation in electronic format
- Send the files to be translated and updates on content to the Publishers in electronic form
- Send the Publishers the graphic elements and page design and lay-out codes used in the original version
- Carry out a quality check of the translation and communicate the results to the Publisher within 3 months of reception of the final and complete version of the translation
- Publish the translated version of Compass in the online site of Compass at its own costs upon agreement with the publishers.
The Publishers will:
- Be solely responsible for the contracting or outsourcing of the Translation and Publishing
- Be able to choose the type of paper, printing, binding and reprinting of the translation
- Have to use in the cover of the translation the typography and general design of the original manual
- Need to use the Council of Europe logo on the cover and title page
- Need to obtain a ISBN for the publication
- Provide the translated final text to the Council of Europe for quality control, and the cover and title pages for approval before printing
- Send 50 copies of the first edition of the translation to the Council of Europe free of charge
- Grant the right form the Council of Europe to purchase further copies at fifty per cent (50%) of the retail selling price for institutional use, not for resale
- Provide the Council of Europe with a “.pdf” version of the layouted final translation.
Partners
Expressions of interest to translate and publish Compass are welcome from partners with proven experience, credibility and capacity to implement such a project.
Coalitions or partnerships between organisations and institutions are encouraged especially when they increase the outreach of the manual in the corresponding communities.
Technical information on the procedure
Expressions of interest to translate and publish Compass should be sent to the Youth Department through the relevant form, as a first step of the procedure.
Once the decision is made on granting the copyright, the details of the cooperation, such as the expected deadline for translation and printing of the publication are set in Memorandum of Agreement on the copyright.
Further information and contact person for the translations:
Erzsébet BANKI, European Youth Centre Budapest. Tel: +36 1 4381036 [email protected]