Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Introduction
The task of a community interpreter is to provide interpreting services to people who do not speak the language of the country they are residing in. Such services allow the client to access public services, deal with court or police in other words help in protecting his/her human rights. The scope of this paper is to look at the concept of human rights and how it developed over the years in Northern Ireland and in Poland. e will take a look on the legislation, both international and local, and organisations that govern human rights protection in both countries. e will analyse the system trying to identify any issues and offering ideas on how to rectify them. In the summary we will deal with a case study and draw conclusions from the main body of the paper.
that e<panded the areas protected but the system for dealing with complaints of the citi1ens remained the same and involved !uropean 2ommision of .uman %ights )now defunct+, !uropean Tribunal of .uman %ights and 2ouncil"s 2ommittee of #inisters. =fter the fall of Soviet %ussia and the !astern bloc and the former %ussian dependents such as Poland, 21ech and Slovakia or 6ithuania started to >oin the !uropean 2ouncil. =s their citi1ens started to learn about the possibility of petitioning Tribunal in Strasbourg on human rights violation the number of complaints the !2 had to deal with increased immensely threatening to make the whole system unoperational. That led to the first ma>or overhaul of the 2onvention and creation of Protocol no. 33 that replaced Protocols ?, :, 8, @, 4, 39 outlining the procedure of petitioning the 2ommission as well as dealing with the petition. It put the latter task solely in the hands of the Tribunal. The last ma>or reform took place in years ?995A?939 when it became obvious that although earlier changes made the system more operational yet they were not ade*uate. Protocol no. 35 was blocked by %ussia who considered it to be targeted at %ussian government. 0radually %ussian position changed and finally on 3 Bune ?939 the document came into force. %ights granted by !uropean 2onvention on .uman %ights and additional protocols ECHR 1950
%ight to life )article ?+ Prohibition of torture )article :+ Prohibition of slavery and forced labour )article 5+ %ight to liberty and security )article 8+ %ight to a fair trial )article C+ No punishment without law )article D+ %ight to respect for private and family life )article @+ $reedom of thought, conscience and e<pression )artice 4+ $reedom of e<pression )article 39+ $reedom of assembly and association )article 33+ %ight to marry )article 3?+ %ight to an effective remedy )article 3:+ Prohibition of discrimination )article 35+
Additional Protocols
Protocol no. 3 )348?+ A right to private possessions A right to education A right to free elections Protocol no. ? )348:+ A prohibition of imprisonment for debts A right to travel A prohibition of e<pulsion of own citi1ens A prohibition of mass e<pulsion of aliens Protocol no. C )34@:+ A prohibition of capital punishment in times of peace Protocol no.D )34@5+ A right of appeal in criminal matters A compensation for wrongful conviction A right to not be tried or punished twice A e*uality between spouses Protocol no. 3? )?999+ A general prohibition of discrimination Protocol 3: )?99?+ A abolition of the death penalty
$or community interpreters of special interests are two articles of the !uropean 2onvention on .uman %ights. &Article 5 2. Everyone who is arrested shall be informed promptly, in a language which he understands, of the reasons for his arrest and of any charge against him( and
&Article 6 1. In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. udgment shall be pronounced publicly but the press and public may be e!cluded from all or part of the trial in the interest of morals, public order or national security in a democratic society, where the interests of "uveniles or the protection of the private life of the parties so re#uire, or the e!tent strictly necessary in the opinion of the court in special circumstances where publicity would pre"udice the interests of "ustice. 2. Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law. $ .Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the following minimum rights% &a' to be informed promptly, in a language which he understands and in detail, of the nature and cause of the accusation against him( &b' to have ade#uate time and the facilities for the preparation of his defence( &c' to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing or, if he has not sufficient means to pay for legal assistance, to be given it free when the interests of "ustice so re#uire( &d' to e!amine or have e!amined witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and e!amination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him( &e' to have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or spea) the language used in court(. !uropean documents do not affect local matters until they are put into national legislation. Though -/ was the driving force beyond penning the 2onvention and first country to sign it many politicians were against embracing the document as they were afraid of !uropean >udges of unknown value meddling in Eritish matters. Eritish police and military practiced detention without trial while dealing with radical movements in Northern Ireland and locally. That led to denying Eritish citi1ens to petition !uropean Tribunal until 34CC. ,espite many attempts to force the 2onvention articles into legislation in the -/ there was no success in complying with the !uropean treaties. The documents were always re>ected, usually not even reaching second reading in the .ouse of 2ommons. ,uring the 49s movement for human rights was very strong garnering support from many organisations such as 6iberty or 2harter @@. hen 6abour Party came into power in 344D it published a white paper on the bill of human rights. ,espite the opposition of 2onservative Party the document went successfully through both 2ommons and 6ords and as .uman %ights =ct 344@ was incorporated into legislation. The main task of the document was to give the effect of !uropean 2onvention on .uman %ights in domestic law. -/ citi1ens could bring human rights cases before local courts instead of having to petition Tribunal in Strasbourg. =ct made it unlawful for public bodies to act against laws described in convention but did not allow to overrule any =cts of Parliament that went against the 2onvention. 2ourt
could only issue a &declaration of incompatibility( advising the legislature to amend it. Poland had its own share of troubles with introducing human rights. -nder communist regime there was no hope of even signing the documents let alone adhering to its spirit. It all changed in 34@4 when Poland regained independence and new formed government started to make up for lost time. Poland wanted to >oin the !uropean 2ouncil and signing the 2onvention was one of the re*uirements. Eoth things happened on the 3 November 3443. 2ommission that worked on creating constitution for Poland incorporated the fundamental rights granted by !uropean 2onvention into Polish main legislative document. %ight to liberty )art :3+, e*uality against law and prohibition of discrimination )art :?+, right to defence )art 5?+ or freedom of belief and thought )art 8: and 85+ are now protected by Polish constitution. 7verall there is more than twenty articles in the documents that define and describe the statutory human rights of Polish citi1ens and people who stay on Polish territory.
There is a number of nonAgovernment organisations dealing with human rights that one can petition or ask advice from in Poland. =mong them are =mnesty International, International .elsinki $ederation for .uman %ights, .uman %ights atch or .alina Niec 6egal =dvice 2entre. $or nonAPolish speaking clients dealing with courts or police those organisations provide interpreting and translation services from the pool of sworn translators. Translators are accredited on the grounds of possessing #= *ualification in applied linguistics of a chosen language and passing the e<am before National !<amination Eoard created by #inistry of Bustice.
It seems that blessing for protection of rights to privacy might have come in a very ugly disguise. Scandal with %upert #urdoch"s controlled News of The orld showed how often media violate this fundamental freedom of -/ citi1ens. That made people aware of a need for control of the way media operate with disregard for people"s liberties. #y only suggestion on improving human rights protection in Northern Ireland would be to look into discrimination on grounds of different nationality or belief. In Eelfast and places all over Northern Ireland there are still places and people who bar someone from entering because of being a 2atholic, Polish or black. There is still a lot of educating and informing that needs to be done before the sectarian way of thinking can be eradicated. In Poland procedure is to blame for violation of human rights. There is a startling deficit of lawyers that forces people to wait for court appointed lawyers for months. 2ourt proceedings take years to reach conclusion. It all springs from the way lawyers ac*uire *ualifications in Poland. 2orporate system throttles the creation of new professionals if they are not family and friends or are unable to pay a lot of money for application. The way to combat this would be a complete overhaul of lawyer"s training and professional development. There is also a great number of unlawful detentions in Poland with people being held in prisons for months and then being ac*uitted of any charges. It results in a violation of liberties of a detained person and huge monetary compensations later on. Sometimes people are detained in trivial cases as was the case with one student who was commuting by train with an e<pired student card. 2ourts should resort to imprisonment only when all the evidence and gravity of the case demand it. $inally there is a serious need to reform the way sworn translators are being appointed. =t present there is no formal system for training them and this needs to be promptly changed to allow for consistent high level of professionalism.
Polish person in the same situation in Northern Ireland would probably have no problem with the procedures but what if he or she came across a 2atholicAhating policemanF I think that procedures notwithstanding it is always people who violate human rights of other people and there is a lot of information and education that needs to be done in order to combat such a discrimination.
'i(liograph&
www.echr.coe.int/!2.% www.conventions.coe.int
Jacobs, F.G.; White, C.A. (1996). The European Convention on Human Rights. Oxford: Clare do !ress. ". #$6. %&'( 9)*+$19*,6,#,*.
www.publications.parliament.uk
!a ic-, .a/id; 0ester, A tho 1 (,$$#). Human Rights Law and Practice. 0o do : 0exis(exis '2tter3orths. "". ara. 1.$,. %&'( $#$6969)14. 0ord 5ac-a1 of Clashfer . Halsbury's Laws of England, ol! "#$% reissue. %&'( $#$6$#))66. 333."ra3ac6lo3ie-a.ed2."l 333.3i-i"edia.co7