Post on 31-Jul-2015
‘True to life’? Videoconference technology
for legal proceedings
Ronald van den Hoogen and Willem WaslanderMinistry of Security and Justice, the Netherlands
Implementing (Transnational)
Videoconferencing• European e-Justice has been focused on providing
information, manuals, documents.• Whereas many countries have many video links,
transnational use is rarely used, for various reasons.
• Our aim is to make videoconferencing work in the field of Justice, by:o Providing countries with video equipmento Discussion quality standardso Starting point Dutch True-to-life principleso Learning from other countries and participants (Avidicus)
Grants• October 2010: European Commission provided
the financial means for the first project Implementing Transnational Videoconferencing
• NL, Germany, Czech Republic, Romania, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Malta.
• February 2011: EC and the Netherlands signed the contract for a second project. Start 7th of April 2011.
• NL, Belgium, Ireland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Romania, Latvia.
• 3rd project? Netherlands, Germany, Turkey.
Observations during this symposium
International symposium AVIDICUS,17th-19th February 2011
What we’ve learned at this conference
• When using videoconferencing, training the judge or the police is equally important to training the interpreter. It will certainly lead to improved working conditions for the interpreter and raise awareness amongst all legal practitioners.
• Settings and technical support for the courtrooms Dutch VC courtrooms ensure a high quality environment for communication. Both legal practitioners and interpreters benefit from this.
• Further research is needed to potentially negative effects of VC in criminal proceedings, but…don’t forget to do research on the positive effects!o For instance: recorded proceedings can be used for training and
coaching all professionals involved, included interpreters.o If distance is not an obstacle, the availability of well skilled
interpreters can really improve the quality of justice.
• Videoconferencing opens up an enormous potential market for interpreters.
Contact us• We are always interested in working together with
countries and organizations in the field of e-Justice, especially on the subject of videoconferencing.
• Join the Linkedin e-Justice group and/or contact us directly:
• w.t.waslander@minjus.nl• r.h.van.den.hoogen@minjus.nl