ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses issues of interpreters breaking their code of professional secrecy and reporting or testifying about abuse and crimes they witness in the course of their work. At British military trials against the Japanese, some of the accused interpreters and local interpreters who used to work for the Japanese military provided incriminating evidence against their former superiors and members of their units. Their possible motives are discussed in connection with their backgrounds and presumed loyalty to the military. Contemporary cases concerning interpreters compelled to give evidence based on the information they obtain on assignment are also examined, with attention to the conditions an international tribunal presents for subpoenaing interpreters as witnesses, the institutional power to control the participation of interpreters as witnesses of politically sensitive matters in legal proceedings, the exceptions to the ethical code of confidentiality and the requirement of reporting torture set forth in a resolution adopted by professional associations. Questions are raised as to whether these discussions reach and inform those interpreters who may actually be exposed to unlawful or potentially unlawful acts, such as the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, in the context of war and violent conflict.
