“When Diversity Becomes Reality”
✍️ By Noelia Azcona [1] An Encounter with Justice and Empathy Within the framework of the invitation to participate in the symposium titled “Colonial Languages in Law: Analyzing the Legacy and Limits of Legal Systems that Do Not Reflect Native Languages,” to be held on February 20 in New York in the context of the International Mother Language Day, I wanted to share a relevant experience from the court under my charge. Access to justice is a fundamental right, but often language barriers can turn it into an unattainable privilege. What we experienced in this case reminded us that empathy and the will to find solutions can change lives. Language Barriers in the Courts In this particular situation, we encountered an objective barrier to accessing justice: language. Our court, located in the province of Córdoba, Argentina, operates entirely in Spanish. However, the litigant was a Quechua-speaking woman of Bolivian origin. She was the biological mother, whom we needed to notify about the t...