The court system has broadened its services, including providing interpreters for foreigners and improving access for people with disabilities, to uphold people’s rights and ensure fairness and equality before the law, Judicial Yuan officials said on Tuesday.
“Taiwan has expanded its links and interactions with the international community given a rising population of migrant workers and new immigrants,” Kao Yu-shun (高玉舜), head of the Judicial Yuan’s Department of Judicial Administration, told a news conference. “As such, our court system must provide professional interpretation services to ensure fairness and equality before the law.”
“The Judicial Yuan, as the authority in charge of the court system, continues to monitor and improve the quality of interpretation with the establishment of a more comprehensive interpreter training program,” she said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Aside from taking a course in interpretation, interpreters are required to obtain a license, which is renewable every two years after passing a language test, she said.
The Judicial Yuan has a database of 263 professional court interpreters for English, Japanese, Korean, Cantonese, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Thai, Khmer, Malay, Filipino, Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese and other languages, she said.
Court interpretation is also available for international sign languages, Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka and Taiwan’s 16 indigenous languages, she said.
“When a case is in session, presiding judges and prosecutors are required to verify if there is a need for an interpreter,” Kao said.
If needed, the court should apply for an interpretation service and select an interpreter to attend the hearing, she added.
“Interpreters can help judges to uncover facts, protect the rights of plaintiffs and suspects, remove the language barrier and uphold the principle of bringing justice to the people,” she said.
Courts have also rebuilt entranceways for better wheelchair access and offer other services to people with disabilities to safeguard their legal rights, she said.
Judicial Yuan spokesman Chang Yong-hong (張永宏) also presented new measures to better protect the rights of defendants and plaintiffs in juvenile court, and implementing an application program for Mandarin Chinese speech recognition and recording in written characters, and on applying rules of evidence in the Citizen Judge System.
Lauding Taiwan’s ranking in the Heritage Foundation’s “2023 Index of Economic Freedom,” Chang said the nation placed fourth among 184 countries in “judicial effectiveness” with a score of 94.7.
“The score of 94.7 is a slight improvement from 2022’s 94.2 and is much higher than average of 48.5 for all countries in 2023,” Chang said, citing the report.
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