Hearing Only a Faint Echo? Interpreters and Children in Court

ABSTRACT

This article reports the findings of a research study that was designed to evaluate the quality of services which child-witnesses receive when they are expected to work with interpreters in court. The primary source of data used in the study was interviews with lawyers, court staff and social workers who had had least three years of experience in observing children in court. The study results supported previous South African research which has indicated that inaccuracy of translation is a pervasive problem in our courts. The article reports and discusses other problems that particularly affect children: these include an inability by many interpreters to relate or communicate appropriately when working with child-witnesses. Interpretation services tend to be particularly inadequate where children are expected to give evidence concerning sexual abuse. The article provides a series of recommendations concerning methods of selection, training and deployment of interpreters that will result in better services for child-witnesses.