Conference interpreters provide an important service that allows people of different languages and cultures to understand each other. It is a service that has a cultural, intellectual and social value, in addition to its economic value. It cannot be ruled exclusively by price considerations or by individual greed. The profession of conference interpretation has a single worldwide professional body to represent it, which makes it easier for members of the profession to follow the same ethical guidelines everywhere.

If conference interpreters follow the ethical principles enshrined in the AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters) Code of Professional Ethics, they will be able to:

(i) provide a quality service to their users and thereby to the purpose of their profession;

(ii) maintain good relations with their colleagues and their clients;

(iii) uphold the technical standards that are essential to the proper exercise of our profession;

(iv) attract new qualified interpreters into the profession; and

(v) maintain decent levels of remuneration that quality deserves.

We must not abandon our old tenets lightly, but must strive to improve them, to modernise them where necessary. The advantage of ethical principles is that they are general, they are guidelines, they can adapt to different cultures and situations without losing their essence.

Excerpt from: The role of ethics in a deregulated 21st century By Jean-Pierre ALLAIN, AIIC Webzine, May-June 2001 http://www.aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/page352.htm