The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2018 - 8

OUTREACH REPORT continued
conflict zones lack the specific protection
under international law that is extended to
journalists and medical personnel.
Linda Fitchett went on to explain that
the problem becomes even more acute
after forces withdraw from these countries
and insurgents have free rein to hunt
these "collaborators" down. She cited case
histories and casualty statistics, including
the nine-year-old nephew of an interpreter
in Afghanistan who was executed because
his uncle worked for the U.S. military,4
as well as instances where the Taliban cut
out the tongues of interpreters prior to
beheading them.
Betsy Fisher, whose organization
represents refugees at all stages of the
resettlement process, expanded on the
dangers for linguists in combat situations,
adding that they are not provided with
body armor or safety equipment, and
that there is no internationally recognized
symbol like that of the Red Cross or the
Red Crescent that would identify them
as non-combatants (which is the basic
idea behind the Red T symbol). Fisher
also spoke about how linguists and their
families are frequently denied resettlement
visas for arbitrary reasons and sometimes
spend years fighting to find safety in
another country.
Kevin Quirk addressed the murky area
of contract linguists working for private
companies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Unlike linguists who work directly for the
military or a government agency, contract

(From left): Sara de Jong, Minister Andrei
Dapkiunas, Linda Fitchett, Maya Hess, and
Kevin Quirk
8

The ATA Chronicle | July/August 2018

The speakers touched on different
aspects of the problem of linguists
in high-risk settings, specifically
in Iraq and Afghanistan.

linguists are separated from the states
for which they are working indirectly
by several degrees, making it even more
difficult for them to obtain protection and
resettlement assistance from these states.
Finally, Sara de Jong shared some of her
research findings, among them the fact
that there is no international coordinated
resettlement program or harmonization
among states that are involved in one
collective mission. The challenges
linguists face in relation to their protection
and resettlement can cause tensions to
arise between people's sense of belonging
to a country, societal recognition of that
belonging, and legal status and access to
social rights.5
Aside from the official panelists,
participants also heard from Marcus
Grotian, a German soldier who was on
active duty in Afghanistan. Grotian chairs
the Patenschaftsnetzwerk Afghanische
Ortskräfte, an organization that supports
Afghan staff that resettled in Germany.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO IMPROVE
THE SITUATION?
A discussion ensued on how to legally
enshrine states' obligations with respect
to basic protections for linguists. Hess
noted that while the nature of any such
legal text remains undecided at this time,
it could take the form of an international
measure, along the lines of the resolutions
adopted for journalists or an amendment
to the Geneva Conventions. The panelists
agreed that they have a long road ahead
in the UN because member states
that use linguists recruited from local
communities may be hesitant to back such
mechanisms. However, there are concrete
steps that could be taken on the ground
in the meantime. For instance, Fisher
encouraged member states to take a more
active role by providing on-base housing,
respecting the right of linguists to remain
anonymous, assisting with relocation, and

maintaining accurate records. Hess sought
greater professionalism on the part of
conflict zone linguists and their employers
through improved training by, for example,
consulting the international coalition's
Civilian Translators/Interpreters and Users
of Their Services, which is available on the
websites of Red T, AIIC, and FIT.6
Finally, Ravi Batri, a lawyer in the
audience, challenged everyone in the room
to take their efforts even further. While
maintaining that the relocation of linguists
and their families is part of the cost of war,
he argued that translators and interpreters
should not be compared to journalists,
and that they are entitled to complete
protection and diplomatic inviolability.
Participants came away from this
roundtable energized by new ideas and
convinced of their moral imperative to
help these linguists.
(Special thanks to Maya Hess for reviewing
a draft of this article.)
NOTES
1
To learn more about Red-T, visit
www.red-t.org.
2

"General Assembly Adopts Texts on
Professional Translation, Multilingualism,
Participation by Observers in United
Nations Oceans Conference" (May 24,
2017), http://bit.ly/Dapkiunas-UN.

3

UN Resolution 71/28,
http://bit.ly/Resolution71-28.

4

David Williams, David, and Larisa Brown.
"Murdered by the Taliban Aged 9 because
His Uncle was an Interpreter for British
Army," The Daily Mail (August 21, 2015),
http://bit.ly/Interpreters-Taliban.

5

Jong, Sara de. "Afghan Interpreters:
Belonging on the Battlefield, Exclusion from
the Nation?" OpenDemocracyUK (May 12,
2018), http://bit.ly/Afghan-interpreters.

6

Conflict Zone Field Guide for Civilian
Translators/Interpreters and Users of Their
Services, http://red-t.org/guidelines.html.

Lucy Gunderson is an
ATA-certified Russian>English
translator specializing in
human rights, legal
documents, and academic
translation. She is also chair
of ATA's Divisions Committee and a former
administrator of the Slavic Languages Division.
Contact: lucy@russophiletranslations.com.
www.atanet.org
http://www.red-t.org http://www.bit.ly/Dapkiunas-UN http://www.bit.ly/Resolution71-28 http://www.bit.ly/Interpreters-Taliban http://www.bit.ly/Afghan-interpreters http://www.red-t.org/guidelines.html http://www.atanet.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2018
