An analysis and comparison between UN translation and AI translation from English into

Arabic.
Introduction:
Language is the basic tool of human interaction all over the world as it delivers messages
between people. People across the world engage with each other in all the different fields of life
and there are many organisations in the world that regulate the relationships between all
countries, on top of it the United Nations organisation. The United Nations a “multipurpose
international organisation, established in 1945 and headquartered in New York City and it has
regional offices in Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi” (Fomerand et al., 2022). The United Nations
has put up an Agenda 2030, in which it declared its approach to deliver sustainable development
goals around the world and one of these goals is to achieve peace and justice (Nations, 2019). In
order to achieve its goal for peace and justice around the world, United Nations has signed an
“Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment” on 9 December 2014. This protocol is translated into different
languages and it needs very accurate translation as it puts responsibilities on the states.
Moreover, artificial intelligence tools has an important role in translating the texts; one of these
tools is Reverso. This paper aims to analyze and compare the United Nations’ translation to
Reverso translation of the “Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”.

Discussion:

The UN sustainable development goals consist of 17 goals and they “are a set of
objectives within a universal agreement to end poverty, protect all that makes planet habitable,
and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity, now and in the future”, and the 16th goal is
to maintain peace, justice and strong institutions (Morton et al., 2017). This goal targets to
“reduce all forms of violence”, to “promote the rule of law at the national and international levels
and ensure equal access to justice for all”, and to “promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws
and policies for sustainable development” (United Nations). Seeking to achieve these goals, UN
has signed an “optional protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment”. Moreover, the UN has translated this protocol into its
working languages including Arabic. By comparing the United Nations translation of the
“Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment” to Reverso translation for the same document, it is clear that the two
translations has some differences in translating some words and sentences, and these differences
appears in the following examples.

- Example 1: S.T: “Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture”

T.T (1): “‫”اللجنة الفرعية لمناهضة التعذيب‬
T.T (2): “‫”اللجنة الفرعية لمنع التعذيب‬
 The word “prevention” is translated in the UN translation as “‫”مناهضة‬, which means
“‫( ”مقاومة ومحاربة ومواجهة‬2005 ,‫)مجمع اللغة العربية‬. On the other side, in Reverso translation,
“prevention” is translated as “‫”منع‬, which means "‫( "حرمان أو قطع‬2005 ,‫)مجمع اللغة العربية‬. This
indicates that the UN translation is more accurate in choosing the UN terminologies as the word
"‫ "مناهضة‬gives more power to the committee than "‫"منع‬.
- Example 2: S.T: “fully carry out its visiting mandate”
T.T (1): “‫”اإلضطالع الكامل بواليتها المتعلقة بالزيارات‬
T.T (2): “‫”االضطالع بواليتها فى الزيارة على نحو كامل‬
In addition, the clause “fully carry out its visiting mandate” in the UN translation is translated as
“‫”اإلضطالع الكامل بواليتها المتعلقة بالزيارات‬, while Reverso translates it as “ ‫االضطالع بواليتها فى الزيارة على‬
‫”نحو كامل‬. These word choices highlights the UN accurate translation using the appropriate Arabic
structure and terminologies.
- Example 3: S.T: “to grant it unhindered access to all places”
T.T (1): “‫”تمكينها من الوصول بحرية إلى جميع األماكن‬
T.T (2): “‫”ومنحها إمكانية الوصول دون عائق إلى جميع األماكن‬
The word “unhindered” is translated as “‫ ”ب ُحرية‬in the UN translation, while it is translated
as “‫ ”دون عائق‬in Reverso translation. This highlights the UN translation accuracy and straightness
in choosing one word that gives the same meaning of the original text.
- Example 4: S.T: “grant it the opportunity to have private interviews”
T.T (1): “‫”إتاحة الفرصة لها إلجراء مقابالت خاصة‬
T.T (2): “‫”منحها فرصة إجراء مقابالت خاصة‬
The clause “grant it the opportunity” is translated as “‫ ”إتاحة الفرصة‬in the UN translation,
while Reverso translates it as “‫”منحها فرصة‬, which indicates the UN translation accuracy in
choosing the Arabic collocations. Moreover, the inefficiency of Reverso translation appears in
translating “the opportunity” as an undefined noun “‫”فرصة‬, although it is a defined noun in the
original text.
- Example 5: S.T: “a State party does not cooperate fully”
T.T (1): “‫”لم تتعاون معها دولة طرف تعاونًا تا ًما‬
ً
T.T (2): “‫كامال‬ ‫”ال تتعاون تعاونًا‬
Furthermore, the clause “does not cooperate” is in the present simple tense in the original
text, however it is translated in the UN translation as “‫”لم تتعاون‬, (past simple tense), which shows
a flaw in the UN translation. On the other hand, Reverso translates it as “‫( ”ال تتعاون‬present simple
tense), which signifies the superiority of Reverso in translating the tenses.
 Moreover, the expression “to the extent that” is translated as “‫ ”إلى درجة‬in the UN
translation, while it is translated as “‫ ”بقدر‬in Reverso translation. This indicates the efficiency of
the UN translation in choosing the suitable and appropriate equivalent in Arabic.
Example 7: S.T: “suspend or terminate its visit”
T.T (1): “‫”تعليق زيارتها أو إنهاؤها‬
T.T (2): “‫”تعليق أو إنهاء زيارتها‬
Furthermore, the clause “suspend or terminate its visit” is translated in UN translation as
“‫”تعليق زيارتها أو إنهاؤها‬, while Reverso translates it as “‫”تعليق أو إنهاء زيارتها‬. This shows that Reverso
does not stick to the structure of Arabic language, unlike the UN translation.
Example 8: S.T: “the visit may recommence at a later date”
T.T (1): “‫”يمكنها أن تستأنف الزيارة فى تاريخ الحق‬
T.T (2): “‫”يجوز استئناف الزيارة في تاريخ الحق‬
Moreover, the verb “may” is translated in the UN translation as “‫”يمكن‬, while Reverso
translates “may” as “‫”يجوز‬, which shows that Reverso trumps over the UN translation as it uses
the appropriate translation of the verb “may”.
Example 10: S.T: “in seeking to address the obstacles”
T.T (1): “‫”تجاوز العقبات‬
T.T (2): “‫”السعى إلى معالجة العقبات‬
The UN translation translates the clause “in seeking to address the obstacles” as “ ‫تجاوز‬
‫”العقبات‬, while Reverso translates it as “‫”السعى إلى معالجة العقبات‬. This shows that Reverso is better in
translating every single meaning, whereas the UN translation skips the clause “in seeking to”.
However, the UN translation is better in choosing the appropriate meaning of “address” as
“‫”تجاوز‬, which means "‫( "تخطيها والتغلب عليها‬2005 ,‫)مجمع اللغة العربية‬, not “‫”معالجة‬, which means
"‫( "التعامل معها‬2005 ,‫ )مجمع اللغة العربية‬as Reverso translates it.
Example 11: S.T: “fulfil its Convention mandate”
T.T (1): “‫”اإلضطالع بالوالية المسندة إليها‬
T.T (2): “‫”الوفاء بواليتها‬
In addition, the UN translation translates “fulfil as “‫”اإلضطالع‬, which means “ ‫قوى عليه‬
‫”ونهض به‬, while Reverso translates it as “‫الوفاء‬, which means “‫( ”تنفيذ‬2005 ,‫)مجمع اللغة العربية‬. This
demonstrates that UN translation uses more expressive terminologies of the meaning of the
original text.
Example 12: S.T: “a formal public statement”
T.T (1): “‫”بيان رسمى علنى‬
 T.T (2): “‫”بيان رسمى عام‬
The UN translation translates the word “public” as “‫”علنى‬, which means ‫"ظاهر ومنتشر‬
"‫( وشائع‬2005 ,‫)مجمع اللغة العربية‬, while Reverso translates it as “‫”عام‬, which means "‫مجمع ( "شامل‬
2005 ,‫)اللغة العربية‬. This proves the UN translation superiority in choosing the suitable word that
means the same as the original text.
Example 13: S.T: “any other appropriate forums”
T.T (1): “‫”غيرها من المحافل المناسبة‬
T.T (2): “‫”أية منتديات مناسبة أخرى‬
Furthermore, the UN translation translates “any other appropriate forums” as “ ‫غيرها من‬
‫”المحافل المناسبة‬, which is an appropriate translation; while Reverso translates it as “ ‫أية منتديات مناسبة‬
‫”أخرى‬, which does not give the appropriate meaning of the original text.

To conclude, this paper analyzes and compares the UN translation to Reverso translation
of “Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment”. Analyzing and comparing the two translations shows that each one of
them surpasses at some points. This shows that the artificial intelligence tools that is used in
translation can, sometimes, give the accurate meaning of the original text. However, other times,
it also gives inaccurate translation that is incompatible with the original text meaning.
Accordingly, machine translation is a helpful and useful way to translate any text, but it needs to
be double checked to make sure of its accuracy.
References:
Fomerand, J., Lynch, C. M., & Mingst, K. (2022). United Nations international organization.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-Nations
Morton, S., Pencheon, D., & Squires, N. (2017). Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and
their implementation. British Medical Bulletin, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldx031
Nations, U. (2019). About Us. United Nations; United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/about-us
United Nations. Sustainable Development Goals | United Nations Development Programme.
UNDP. Retrieved May 8, 2022, from https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals
‫ المعجم الوسيط‬.)2005( .‫مجمع اللغة العربية‬. https://www.noor-book.com/‫الوسيط‬-‫المعجم‬-‫كتاب‬-pdf