A VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM
It is obvious that a text of legislation's main objective is to consolidate a legal system with logical thinking entrenched. We know very well that the Anglo-Saxon and Romano Germanic differ on fundamental points. This is partly because of the fact that legal provisions are most often the result of philosophical thinking, psychological, moral, cultural and even religious, country-specific. So do not be surprised duty law concepts or American English as "plea bargain, common law or equity, totally unknown in the Haitian justice system. The reason is that we're not part of the same family of law. This does not mean that a fellow Haitian can not be sued by a Canadian court or a U.S. citizen can be tried in Italy. The procedures are varied from one system to another, but the law is and remains universal. Justice does not speak a language, the language of fairness.
It is given to us to see a serious problem of translation at the level of justice in Haiti. Trials are usually held in French. Judgments are also in the language of the whites from the Hexagon ... in the name of the republic. The judge, public prosecutors, lawyers speak proudly in the dialectic of Voltaire. But we have never seen one of these gentlemen to plead or make a decision in the language of our ancestors. Shame or complex? What is certain, the poor bugger who sits on the bench of the accused does not understand the farce that is. It is there on the spot, watching his lawyer and the representative of the company to make beautiful soaring legal, ie consecrated formulas and things that are beyond him, wondering desperately what are these black devils? It is in the process of sacrifice in a patois that even understands not. The height of demagoguery, he asks questions in French through the magistrate seat in honcho, it's translated into his native language. It is a fact, Creole is not appreciated, it also discriminated against excessive by legal professionals.
We talk about land two to three thousand languages. One can not advance a specific number because it is often difficult to decide whether two "dialects" are languages or dialects. About 90% of Haitians do not speak French, so why prosecute a defendant in a language he can not even defend themselves provide replicas. It's the same thing in the Justices of Peace and Offices of Education. The judges pose questions in Creole and French transcribed the responses on the minutes of interrogation. A judge has no right to translate the declaration of an accused. It must use a legally sworn translator, expert in the field if eventually it is facing such a dilemma.
This problem is very serious to the extent that sometimes the translation of the testimony produced unexpected effects, not to be true. We know the story of the judge which, by mistake, in his translation adds a zero sum, when transcribing a deposition. We say to anyone who will listen: it is difficult for one person, it was a lawyer, well translate a statement without a mastery of language. Now we know how French is nuanced. The judge who engages in such practices is obliged to choose a French word equivalent rather than keeping the original term Creole and explain in his own way, which appears incongruous. So far, the typological classification, which consists of grouping languages with similar grammatical structures, has not yet yielded satisfactory results.
The law is not a simple matter of translating words. Of course, one can look in dictionaries Creoles to check the exact meaning of terms and obtain the equivalent but what about codes of laws that are written and edited in French? Here the problem is more acute. In truth, this approach of judges and lawyers provokes, in most cases, the guilt of the respondent. Translate to French Haitian Creole in court has the effect of giving birth to stipulations incorrect and unfortunate misinterpretations with all the consequences this may have on the parties concerned. Do not we say''betraying''translate it? If the Constitution of the Republic recognizes two official languages, cons, Creole has not yet found its place in Haitian courts where French is king ... as in colonial times.
Heidi FORTUNE
Magistrate, Magistrate
Cap-Haitien, Haiti
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June 1, 2008 Read more ... 
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