We offer language support to any person, group or organization that works in Latin America and that falls within the definition of Human Rights Defender (HRD) in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, so “individuals or groups who act to promote, protect or strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms through peaceful means”. We do not offer language support in relation to any commercial activity.

We mainly offer support with document translation and we also offer language classes for HRDs. We do not currently offer interpreting support (real-time oral translation) but we can offer HRDs advice on where to find an interpreter if they need one.

We try to give HRDs language support in whatever languages they need. The languages we mainly work in are Spanish, Portuguese and English. We also aim to offer language support to HRDs who speak indigenous languages and we are actively recruiting volunteers who can offer this support. If a HRD needs language support in a language for which we do not have any volunteers, we can offer advice on where to find the support needed.

No! You are eligible for free language support so long as it is in connection with your human rights work. We particularly welcome requests for support from individual HRDs, community groups and grassroots organizations.

Yes! You do not have to be physically based in Latin America in order to request language support. Your work needs to be connected with Latin America but the individual HRD, group or organization can be based elsewhere in the world.

Yes! We support animal rights as well as human rights.

You can get any documents relating to your work in human rights translated, for example, your organization’s website, funding applications or reports on human rights abuses.

If possible, the documents you send us to be translated should be in an editable format, for example, a Microsoft Word document.

Translations are carried out by our volunteers, not by a machine translation tool. Volunteers may, however, use a machine-generated translation as a first draft, then check it for accuracy and refine it to sound more natural in a process called post-editing. This is common practice in professional translation today.

Each translation is reviewed for quality assurance. When the first volunteer returns the completed translation, we then re-post it on our job listings for review by a second volunteer. We then return the translation to the HRD who requested language support.

As we are a volunteer organization, we cannot guarantee that a volunteer will be available for each job. If the job is not urgent, we ask that HRDs be patient and wait for a volunteer to become available. If the job is urgent, we can offer you advice on finding the language support you need.

While we will always try to accommodate any request for language support as far as possible, we are unable to guarantee that we will have a volunteer available to take on your job or to have it completed by a specific date. In the event that we do not have a volunteer for your job, we can also offer advice on finding the language support you need.

Yes! We have volunteers who can proofread and edit documents. When you are filling in the form for language support, simply let us know that it is a translation review you need, not document translation.

We ask HRDs who are interested in taking language classes to first complete an online test to establish their level of proficiency in the language they wish to learn. If you have already taken language classes and you know what your level is, then just let us know. Each language class runs in a block of four one-hour classes, which are held once a week. The class can have between one and twelve students. Having classes together can be a great way for HRDs from different countries to connect with each other!

No, there is no obligation to pay for language support if you are a HRD. However, if a HRD does have funds, we suggest that they give an honorarium payment to the volunteer in recognition of the work they have done.

We are a community of volunteers working together to offer language support to HRDs in Latin America. We have not yet registered as a non-profit organization, however, this is something we aim to do in the future.

No! We will only contact you in relation to your request for language support. We will email you when you first request language support to confirm receipt of your application, then when a volunteer has accepted the job and again when we return the completed work to you and ask for your feedback.

We will never use your information for any purpose outside of our webpage nor will we ever share your information with third parties. You can read our Privacy Policy here.

You can contact us at info@lastranslations.org

To get language support, please fill out this form.

When we receive your application for language support, we then post your job on our job listings. We will let you know when a volunteer accepts your job. When our volunteer finishes the translation, we re-post it on our job listings for review by a second volunteer for quality assurance. When we receive the reviewed translation, we will return it to you. We ask for feedback on how having language support has helped you in your work and we share this information with our volunteers, which encourages them to keep volunteering with us! For language classes, we ask HRDs who are interested in taking language classes to first complete an online test to establish their level of proficiency in the language. If you have already taken language classes and you know what your level is, then just let us know. Each language class runs in a block of four one-hour classes, which are held once a week. The classes can have between one and twelve students.