Legal Terminology Challenge: Combatting Human Trafficking
A Sight Translation Exercise
by Yvette Citizen, FCCI
One of the great things about being an interpreter is meeting - and interpreting for – very interesting people, some of whom are doing amazing work to make the world a better place. Recently, I had the opportunity to interpret for Catherine Haggerty, Retired Commander, Austin Police Department. Ms. Haggerty started out as an NYPD Officer but at some point, life took her to Austin, Texas, where she held many ranks in the local police department up to Commander. She has worked with the Department of Justice combatting transnational crime, terrorism, and corruption. As a Program Manager for the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Ms. Haggerty has been active in leading police reform and implementing best practices across the world. She has provided training to law enforcement personnel in Brazil, Morocco, Mexico, India, and other countries.
I had the good fortune of interpreting for her at a training for Mexican police officers on identification and investigation of human trafficking. This is part of a joint agreement between Mexico and the U.S. to combat transborder crime.
I wish most speakers spoke as clearly as she did. Due to her international training programs, she has extensive experience working with interpreters. It was truly a pleasure meeting and conversing with Ms. Haggerty. I wish her all the best in her many worthy endeavors.
Now, for a vocabulary challenge.
Court interpreters are often confronted with litanies (sometimes referred to as laundry lists) of legal terms like those underlined in the following texts. We invite you to sight translate the document and see how many terms you know off the bat, without consulting your dictionary.
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SIGHT TRANSLATION: HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Human trafficking is modern day slavery. It is not the same thing as migrant smuggling. The migrant is willingly transported into or harbored in another country and pays for that service. The migrant is typically not coerced although many migrants are vulnerable and may end up as victims of human trafficking.
Human trafficking exists in all countries, including the United States. It is found in cities, rural communities, and suburbs. Victims come from all socio-economic classes.
According to the State of California:
A person who deprives or violates the personal liberty of another with the intent to obtain forced labor or services is guilty of human trafficking.
“Deprivation or violation of the personal liberty of another” includes substantial and sustained restriction of another's liberty accomplished through force, fear, fraud, deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the victim or to another person under circumstances where the person receiving or apprehending the threat reasonably believes that it is likely that the person making the threat would carry it out.
The term “coercion” includes any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process; debt bondage; or providing and facilitating the possession of a controlled substance to a person with the intent to impair the person's judgment.
The term “duress” includes a direct or implied threat of force, violence, danger, hardship, or retribution sufficient to cause a reasonable person to acquiesce in or perform an act that he or she would otherwise not have submitted to or performed; a direct or implied threat to destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate, or possess an actual or purported passport or immigration document of the victim.
To report human trafficking offenses, you can call the National Human trafficking hotline: 1-888-373-7888
This is the end of the sight translation exercise.
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Copyright September 2024: The Confident Interpreter, LLC., Yvette Citizen, Irene Radillo. All rights reserved.
Yvette Citizen, FCCI & Ret. Commander Haggerty
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