Legal translation as a human right: Ensuring a fair trial through translation quality and training

This paper addresses the issue of the translation of legal texts in criminal proceedings as a human right. Language rights have been recognized in a series of instruments, notably the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and more recently the Directive 2010/64/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings. The latter has been defined by EP rapporteur Ludford as the first EU fair trial law whereby translation becomes a tool for the inclusion of those who do not speak or understand the language of the proceedings. After an analysis of the Directive in the first part, this paper will tackle its implementation in the member states, which have taken advantage of its vagueness, hardly changing current practices. Finally, a training format developed within the EU project QUALETRA will be presented in the third part of the paper to address the quality requirements set out in the Directive.