NAT: Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts & Tribunals

CAPACITY REACHED - REGISTRATIONS CLOSED

Many of us know the Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals (RNS) was published in 2017, but how many of us really understand what the standard means? How many of us have referred to the RNS in our practice? Has there been any improvement in how interpreters are treated in court and tribunals over the past 4 years? And what can we do when the legal professionals don’t know how to work with interpreters?

To assist with the promotion and application of the RNS, AUSIT is in partnership with NAATI to provide this series of two (2) webinars helping interpreters to better understand the RNS and its application. Participants must pass an online quiz to receive a Certificate of Participation. 

Session 1 - Practitioner Cintia Lee

Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals: an overview for Interpreters

Description

The Judicial Council on Cultural Diversity (JCCD) developed the RNS to establish recommended standards and optimal practices for Australian courtrooms. The RNS provide guidance with respect to practices and procedures that might be adopted by courts, judicial officers, legal practitioners and interpreters when providing interpretation in a court or tribunal setting. The aim of this webinar is to promote knowledge of the RNS amongst court and tribunal interpreters with a view to their implementation. During the webinar, attendees will have an opportunity to learn about the significance of the RNS and what they mean for interpreters and for the justice system in general, how to read and understand the RNS, how to put them into practice and what interpreters can do to help with their implementation by other parties.

Session 2 - Professor Ludmila Stern

Do Judicial Officers adhere to the recommended practice for working with Interpreters? Early observations of the RNS implementation.

Description
The Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals (RNS) is a policy document that outlines the principles of working in court when an interpreter is involved. Its purpose is to inform both interpreters and interpretation users about achieving effective interpreted communication. However, as with many other policy documents, the application of the RNS is not mandated.

In this webinar we will examine the preliminary results of the research project Judicial Officers working with interpreters: Implications for access to justice, a national project conducted by a team of UNSW researchers and supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC). In it we identify and discuss the practices used by judicial officers (JOs) – the key figures in legal proceedings – to communicate in court when working with interpreters. We examine whether JOs follow the recommendations of the RNS and modify the way they communicate in interpreting proceedings and accommodate the interpreters’ professional needs.  The initial observations of interpreted court proceedings have shown that JOs generally acknowledge the presence of the interpreter, however, their strategies are likely to be based on their own experience and perceptions about the interpreters’ needs, and not on the RNS or other sources. In this light, we will discuss the steps interpreters could take to ensure that their professional needs are respected.

Biography - Cintia Lee

Cintia Lee is a Sydney-based NAATI Certified Interpreter and Translator in Spanish and English and holds a degree in English Philology from the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain. After gaining her NAATI accreditation in 1994, she has alternated her career between Spain – where she taught English and translated and interpreted for large corporations, government agencies and courts, as well as at international conferences – and Australia, where she has taught Spanish, interpreted at international conferences, translated thousands of documents and accumulated a wealth of experience across a range of community interpreting settings, with a focus on interpreting for legal and law enforcement purposes. Cintia has been providing professional interpreting services in criminal, civil and administrative courts and tribunals in Australia since 2011. She has a strong commitment to delivering high-quality interpretation at all times and to upholding the highest professional and ethical standards. She is passionate about helping others communicate effectively and strives for continuous improvement in an ever-evolving profession. She is a member of AUSIT – where she is currently serving on the NSW Branch Professional Development Committee – and a member of Translators and Interpreters Australia.

Biography - Ludmila Stern

Ludmila Stern is Professor of Interpreting at UNSW Sydney. She is the founder of the NAATI-endorsed UNSW Master of Interpreting and Translation. Her research covers interpreting in domestic and international courts, with the focus on the role of interpretation users. Her project Judicial Officers working with interpreters: Implications for access to justice was awarded the ARC Linkage grant, and is supported by the industry stakeholders AUSIT, Aboriginal Interpreter Service (NT), Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration (AIJA), All-Graduates, NAATI, Multicultural NSW, JCCD, and TIS National. Her other major project focuses on interpreting in war crimes trials and is titled From the Nuremberg Trials to the International Criminal Court: Interpreting in War Crimes Prosecutions. Her historical research examines Western intellectuals’ involvement with the Stalinist USSR in the interwar period. Ludmila was a Director on the NAATI Board (2010-2016), and the Chair of the NAATI Technical Resources Advisory Committee (TRAC, 2017-2020). She holds NAATI credentials in interpreting and translation (Russian<>English), including in Conference Interpreting.

Joining the Webinar

The Zoom links for the two webinars will be sent out two (2) days prior to the event. Please ensure you have downloaded the latest version of Zoom in preparation.

This is a LIVE EVENT and WILL BE recorded.

PD Logbook:
Level: Intermediate

Please  consult the NAATI Recertification Catalogue to allocate the relevant PD Points - downloadable from www.naati.com.au Some activities can be included under different categories, so please choose the most appropriate category for your recertification purposes.'

Certificates and recordings:

Participants must pass an online quiz to receive a Certificate of Participation. Certificates for PD purposes and copies of recordings (if available) may take approximately two (2) weeks to be released following the event.