Citizenship and clear language, understanding justice is a right
"National District Court adapts custody ruling so that 8-year-old girl understands it." That's the headline in Diario Libre that we've read in recent days. There's nothing new about a court issuing a ruling on custody and guardianship. The novelty this time is in the language.
As Diario Libre reported, the court in charge of the case issued a pioneering ruling, not for its content, but for the expression of that content in a language adapted to the needs of the citizen who will be essentially affected by the sentence .
And that citizen is an eight-year-old girl to whom we, as a society, must guarantee protection and the exercise of her rights.
The Court of Appeal for Children and Adolescents of the National District, before whose judges I take off my symbolic hat today, ordered that the wording of the sentence be adapted to clear and simple language to ensure that the minor could understand the decision that the judges had made about her custody.
No one was more affected than she by this sentence ; no one was more interested than she in fully understanding what this sentence meant for her daily life and for her future.
The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset , in his work What is Philosophy?, was clear about it: "I must make the most loyal effort so that all of you, even without prior training, will understand everything I say. I have always believed that clarity is the courtesy of the philosopher."
If for philosophers and speakers clarity is, as Ortega believed, a matter of courtesy , for public administrations clear language is an inalienable obligation to safeguard the right of all citizens to understand the decisions that affect them.
Adela Cortina, professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the University of Valencia, gave her inaugural lecture at the 12th International Seminar on Language and Journalism, organised by Fundéu and the San Millán de la Cogolla Foundation, “ Clear language : from the courtesy of the philosopher to the rights of citizens”.
He reminded us that language is not only an instrument of expression and communication, but that it is the "indeclinable humus in which we live, move and have our being."
We are language and nothing expressed in our language is foreign to us. We are citizens, social beings, and our relationship with others is closely linked to our language.
Cortina said that advocating for clear language is a question of symmetry . It is about balancing the scales on which public administration and citizens, companies and their clients, the media and their users are measured.
It is about restoring the citizen's role, so that he receives clear and precise information in plain language, like that advocated by our Cervantes , so that his citizen response is possible; so that dialogue is possible.
It is the responsibility of the Governments, but let us not forget that it is also the responsibility of each one of us as professionals in our areas of work .
Our expression must be clear, correct, understandable ; it must never forget its recipients, so that they can exercise their right to respond. It must never forget the eight-year-old girl for whom a clear and well-written sentence can mean her birth into citizenship.
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