Interpretation in Police Stations: Lawyers’ Perspectives on Rights and Realities

Abstract

Limited attention has been paid to the realization of the right to interpretation in the police station. What has been done often focuses on the police or the interpreter experience. We seek to address this lacuna by focusing on the extent to which the right to interpretation is realized in Ireland. We start by outlining the nature of the right at international and European levels, and exploring the reasons why the right is so important. We consider how this has been implemented in Ireland, and note how even on paper there are significant, fundamental concerns as to how the effectiveness of the right is achieved. We then present findings from semi-structured interviews with over 40 criminal defence solicitors in Ireland, with experience of attending police interviews. The findings show that solicitors have concerns about the process of securing interpreters, the quality of the work, their independence, their understanding of their role, the overall impact on the process and the urgent need for training. It is abundantly clear that the right cannot be effectively realized under the current system in Ireland, despite the Directive on Interpretation being in effect there. Further, we note that solicitors are often uncertain and unclear on the extent of the right and what they can ask for. This means that those who are defending the rights of the detainee are unlikely to challenge breaches as they occur. The right to interpretation is clearly deeply neglected and ineffective in Ireland.

Translation in pre-trial phases of the judicial process: developing a norm-based framework to train translators working into Arabic

“…Since then, the few researchers who have studied how interpreting is performed at the custodial interrogation stage have endorsed Berk-Seligson's view and cautioned against calling upon bilingual officers to interpret (Filipović and Abad 2018;Tamura 2019). Empirical findings (Conway et al 2022;Hale et al 2019;Mulayim et al 2014;Walsh et al 2020) emphasise the importance of ensuring objectivity and impartiality in police interviews by using interpreting professionals who are independent and publicly funded. In many countries, there are policies in place to regulate the employment of interpreters in legal cases (Mulayim et al 2014) and prohibit the recourse to bilingual employees in law enforcement agencies, regardless of bilingual competency (Berk-Seligson 2009).…”

“…By contrast, in courts of law and police stations, accuracy and neutrality are an absolute prerequisite in the linguistic transmission of information. They guarantee that the information being transmitted to the person is accurate, as what is or is not said at the interview may potentially have consequences on the trial (Conway et al 2022). Consequently, judicial translation and liaison translation cannot be equated, even though both provide linguistic assistance in a particular context involving a foreign person.…”

Detection, identification and protection of third-country national victims of human trafficking in Ireland

“…226 The HTICU also stated that victim information booklets can be provided to victims of human trafficking, which set out their rights and are available in a number of languages, including Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, Georgian, Hindi, Kurdish, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Thai, Urdu and Yoruba, among others. 227 However, as described by Conway et al (2022), access to interpretation in police stations in Ireland can be limited in practice.…”

“…Although the study focused on criminal defence settings, concerns were raised by solicitors interviewed in their research on, inter alia, the process of securing interpreters, the quality of interpretation provided, the independence of interpreters and an urgent need for training of interpreters (Conway et al, 2022).…”

Doing Criminology and Criminal Justice in Ireland: Perspectives From a Peripheral Nation

“…In recognition of its importance and its quality, their training was accredited by the Law Society of Ireland and funded by the European Commission. They had just begun to publish this work, with papers appearing in the Irish Judicial Studies Journal (Conway & Daly, 2019), International Journal of the Legal Profession (Pivaty et al, 2020), Journal of Human Rights Practice (Conway et al, 2021), and Journal of Law and Society (Daly & Conway, 2021). Yvonne and Vicky wrote a book, Criminal Defense Representation in Garda Stations , due to be published shortly by Bloomsbury.…”