Building Cultural Capacity 2018

Overview

This course provided judges with a range of issues relating to social context in both civil and criminal matters. The seminar provided judges with a forum to assess and enhance their cultural competence.

Objectives

This program focused on a number of concrete and practical objectives. These included: enhancing the participants’ understanding of the importance of cultural competence in the courtroom; recognizing the existence and influence of one’s own cultural background; building cultural competence; making the best decisions possible by appropriately taking culture into consideration when assessing evidence and rendering decisions; and better managing courtrooms by identifying and responding to different cultural orientations in culturally appropriate ways.

Summary

Faculty delivering the course included diversity experts, judges with expertise in human rights law, academic experts on culture, and practitioners with experience in issues of cultural difference and social discrimination. The program included a combination of lectures, panel presentations, videos depicting emerging intercultural dynamics, role-playing scenarios and small groups. Topics included: cultural competence and diversity; translating diversity concepts into the legal context; understanding different Indigenous perspectives; and taking culture into consideration when assessing evidence and making decisions.