ABU DHABI – The Federal National Council (FNC) on Tuesday approved a draft law regulating the profession of translation and interpretation). It also stipulates penalties.
Under the new bill, only professional and licensed translators will be allowed to take up related jobs and the penalties include financial fines of up to Dh100,000 and jail term of up to two years.
According to the draft law, only licensed translators will be allowed to take up related jobs. Those practising as translators without a licence and not qualifying the prescribed tests will be penalised. They will face a jail term of three months to a year, with fines between Dh10,000 and Dh30,000. The penalty for the licensed translators who make mistakes be a jail term of six months to two years and fines of Dh50,000 to Dh100,000, it stipulates.
After a marathon debate, the House approved the bill with amendments pertaining to technical wording rather than key elements such as the penal codes.
However, the members suggested the laws regulating the jobs of translators must be tightened because a minor mistake in the job can ruin the life of an individual or a corporate organisation.
The house also maintained that professional translators were a must for securing social, communal and national interests. The members also stressed that professional and qualified translators at government establishments, particularly at courts, was the need of the hour. The house unanimously agreed with the draft that all translators must be qualified professionals, licensed and medically certified that they are mentally sound. More.
See: The Khaleej Times
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Canada
Local time: 12:45
Spanish to English
+ ...
Abu Dhabi has just shot itself in the foot. From now on it and its businesses will have a devil of a time finding competent translators inside their own country. Jailtime for mistakes? No domestic translator will touch it with a barge pole, IMHO. Businesses will now feel forced to look abroad for translators.
Ukraine
Local time: 22:45
English to Russian
+ ...
In case I translate a story for my son - will it be a crime?
Spain
Local time: 21:45
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Well, if I were a translator in Abu Dhabi I would triple my rates immediately, to cover the cost of the two, three, or more reviewers needed to be absolutely establish that no mistake is present in the translation.
Indeed as suggested by the colleague, this is the end of the profession in the UAE and companies will have to find translators elsewhere. Knowing about this law passed, I think I will never accept a translation job from the UAE unless they pay me in gold bars.
Denmark
Local time: 21:45
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Any translator who agrees to those terms must be certifiable - and not as mentally sound.
Local time: 21:45
English to French
+ ...
And nobody at the international level, within the international administrations/organizations and/or intellectual societies denounced it !!!????
I can't believe it.
Catherine
[Edited at 2012-02-10 17:57 GMT]
Russian Federation
Local time: 22:45
Italian to Russian
+ ...
Mistakes [that ruin the life of an individual or a corporate organisation] be a jail term of six months to two years and fines of Dh50,000 to Dh100,000.
If compared to medical, law enforcement, judiciary criminal liability?
[Edited at 2012-02-11 11:55 GMT]
Denmark
Local time: 21:45
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Mistakes [that ruin the life of an individual or a corporate organisation] be a jail term of six months to two years and fines of Dh50,000 to Dh100,000.
If compared to medical, law enforcement, judiciary criminal liability?
[Edited at 2012-02-11 11:55 GMT]
I make every effort to ensure that my translations are correct, and I know that my work is often proofread by the agency or the client as well.
Considering how a technically tiny error can cause disaster nevertheless, I have an insurance that covers quite a lot of damage, if I should forget the word 'not' somewhere, or slip a zero too many in some critical figure, or make some similar error.
I have never had to claim on my insurance, and I would feel awful if I really ruined someone's life or business in spite of my precautions.
But I would not feel a six month jail sentence was reasonable. Human error sometimes has tragic consequences, but it is not a crime.
Luckily, where I live, the claimant has to prove fault or negligence before I can be punished by prison or a fine. A genuine mistake is covered by my insurance.
Draconian punishments do not make better translators. But they could ruin a good translator's business for a technically very tiny mistake. And nobody in this world is perfect...
Local time: 21:45
Swedish to English
Perhaps they've never heard of the one man ever who was never wrong?
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