Ethics in Translation

and Interpretion
MOROI IULIANA TODICA TATIANA CEAVDARI DANIELA
Contents
• The role of translators and interpreters in society
• What is ethics?
• Issues concerning translation and interpretation
• Professional codes of practice for translators
 The increasing role of translators-
interpreters
• Translation and interpreting are now increasingly recognised as
vital activities and an indispensable part of both the professional
and social fields.
• They have become central to promoting cultural and linguistic
diversity and developing multilingualism worldwide.
 Fields of work Medical Business
Such rapid and far reaching
changes have led to increased
attention to questions of
ethics in the academic
literature on translation and
interpreting in recent years. Court Conference
 What is ethics?
• Ethics is a set of beliefs about what is morally right or wrong.
[Cambridge Dictionary]
 1. Increasing responsibility
• Every professional must demonstrate he/she is prepared to take
responsibility for the consequences.
• While in past times translators were considered to possess such
values as impartiality and neutrality, now they have to be
responsible for consequences.
• The arrest and trial of Mohamed Yousry in the US in 2005 is a case
in point.
 Mohamed Yousry
• Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic translator and
interpreter appointed by the court to assist in a Arabic translator Mohammed Yousry
leaves federal court in New York,
terrorism trial, was convicted by a New York jury for Tuesday, June 22
aiding an Egyptian terrorist organisation.
• Yousry was held responsible for translating a letter
from the defendant (inculpat) (Sheikh Omar Abdel
Raman), at the instruction of the attorney (avocat)
(Lynne Stewart), which Stewart later released to the
press.
 • This was seen as paradigm-changing for the interpreting industry.
For the first time in US legal history, “an interpreter was held
responsible for the actions of an attorney for whom he worked and
for the content of the attorney-client conversations which he
facilitated”.
• Consequence?• The case, and others that followed, reminded the profession that
interpreters and translators can be held accountable not only
for how they translate but also for the content of whatthey translate.
• If they are to be held accountable in these respects, they must be
trained to make ethically informed decisions for which they can
knowingly assume responsiblity.
 2. Taste and Morality
• Practising translators and interpreters have traditionally been perceived as apolitical professionals
whose priority is to earn a living by serving the needs of their clients. This is the ‘prototype’ of a
professional translator or interpreter that is often presented to students.
• In more recent years, however, practising translators and interpreters have begun to challenge this
image of their profession by voicing their opinions on a variety of issues and debating the
question of ethics explicitly.
• As one medical translation agency put it in 2010, “[u]nless one’s work involves animal testing or
abortion or a similar topic, translators are unlikely to get political about their work”. The agency
was quick to note, however, that “the world, it is a-changing”.
Foreign Exchange Translations decided
to conduct a poll, giving the following
question:

•Would you refuse translations

on ethical, moral, political, or
religious grounds?
 Full results of poll conducted by Foreign Exchange
Translations.
• The results suggest that ethics is
now a major concern for the
profession.
• Out of 1571 responses, we can see
that:
 3. Political conflict
Balkan Wars Invasion of
• The final decade of the twentieth Afghanistan and Iraq
century and the beginning of the
twenty-first century have been marked
by a number of major wars in which
international humanitarian
organisations and military forces have
been extensively engaged, these South Sudan War Intervention in Libya
and Somalia
include:
 How are translators-interpreter prepared for
such situations?
• Since then, there has been a growing recognition of
the involvement of interpreters and translators in
high risk situations of violent conflict.
• First, the international professional associations
AIIC (Association Internationale des Interprètes de
Conférence) and FIT (Fédération Internationale des
Traducteurs) have recently initiated a project in
collaboration with RedT, a non-profit organisation,
to develop a Conflict Zone Field Guide designed to
assist vulnerable interpreters working in war zones.
Second, the Faculté de traduction et d’interprétation,
University of Geneva, now offers virtual as well as face-
to-face training (InZone Project) to interpreters in crisis
zones and is engaged in developing a professional code
of ethics specifically for humanitarian interpeters.
 Professional codes of practice for
translators
• Professional codes for translators stress the need for impartiality,
accuracy and efficiency, these being the traditional cornerstones of
professional translation and interpreting, seen from the perspective of
the service economy rather than social responsibility or human
dignity.
• What is certain, however, is that interpreters and translators have a
central role to play in the inevitable clashes that occur in the moral,
social, and often violent, spaces of human interaction.
Translator’s Code of Ethics (1)
• Professional Practice
• Translators should endeavor to provide service of the highest quality in their
professional practice.
• Accuracy
• The translator must translate accurately. By accurate translation we understand a
translation that preserves the meaning, style and register of the source document.
• Confidentiality
• The translator must respect, under all circumstances, confidentiality and privacy of
the information contained in all documentation provided by the client for the
purpose of translation, unless otherwise required by law. All information submitted
shall be confidential and may not be reproduced, disclosed or divulged.
Translator’s Code of Ethics (2)
• Impartiality and Conflict of Interest
• In order to maintain professionalism, the translator must remain impartial and declare any potential
conflict of interest (including personal or ethical values and opinions) that may affect his/her
performance while translating a document.
• Limitation of practice
• The translator must know his/her linguistic limitations and decline assignments that go beyond
his/her skills and competence.
• The translator must only accept assignments that he/she can complete and deliver in a timely manner
(by the due date).
• The translator must accept documents that he/she can translate. No work should be subcontracted to
colleagues without prior written permission.
• The translator should possess sound knowledge of the source language and be an expert in the target
language.
• The translator should accept translations only for fields or subject matters where he/she has
knowledge and experience.
Translator’s Code of Ethics (3)
• Accountability
• The translator is accountable for his/her work and must recognize and
acknowledge translation mistakes and try to rectify them even when the
translation has been completed, in order to avoid potential liability and risk
issues.
• Respect for all parties
• The translator must show respect for all parties involved in the translation
assignment, including respect for self, the agency and to its clients.
• The translator must respect copy rights and intellectual property. Translated
documents remain the client’s exclusive property.