The Kosovo Judicial Council (KJC), supported by the European Union / Kosovo Justice Sector Programme – EUKOJUST, is drafting a Manual for translators and interpreters in courts.
A workshop on this Manual with Kosovo Judicial Council, KJC Translation Office, the Normative Committee and interpreters and translators from Courts was organized in Prizren on Wednesday, 29 June 2022. It was moderated by the EUKOJUST Expert on Access to Justice, Alina Matache and supported by the EUKOJUST Expert on Management of translation services in courts and prosecution offices, Filloreta Hoxha.
The workshop is a follow-up of the 25 EUKOJUST Recommendations for coping with the translation backlog at Kosovo Courts and improve the management of translation services in the judiciary.
The Manual sets the standards and norms for interpreters and translators in the judicial sector, starting from establishing the number of daily pages to be translated, the number of hours to be spent in one hearing by one interpreter and the efficient use of human resources. Improving quality of translations, including non-majority official language is one of the main activities of Objective 4 of the EUKOJUST project dedicated to Access to Justice. Legal interpreting and legal translation in a bilingual context are of fundamental importance in helping to protect the rights of those who do not speak or understand the language of the proceedings and are also essential to safeguard the fairness of the proceedings.
