Within the framework of the European Union-Council of Europe Joint Project on “Promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution in Turkey”, a Workshop on A.1.1: Conducting Needs Assessment Analysis was held online, due to precautions on Covid-19 pandemic, on 9-10 February 2022. The workshop started with the opening speeches of Mr. Ali Öztürkmen, Director General for Criminal Affairs of the Ministry of Justice, and Mr. Cristian Urse, Head of Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara, emphasizing the importance of the project and implemented activities in institutionalisation of the restorative justice approach.
A total of 60 participants representing different stakeholders, such as prosecutors, judges, conciliators, lawyers, conciliation bureau staff, academicians and related NGOs as well as international and local consultants and the project teams of the Directorate General for Criminal Affairs of the Ministry of Justice and the Council of Europe attended the meeting.
During the workshop, consultants presented the last drafts of the needs assessment report, comparative analysis report, including best practices in Europe and international models on restorative justice, and three new models to be applied in Turkey (models for juvenile criminals, for cases of Intimate Partner Violence and a general model for conciliation) that were developed following the desk review, the field visits and roundtable discussion meetings conducted between September-December 2021. In the following sessions, stakeholders divided into groups according to their profession and gave feedback on the issues discussed during the presentations.
The overall aim of this last activity on conducting needs assessment analysis was to consolidate recommendations for improvement of the current conciliation mechanism in Turkey and to outline proposals on the new models on conciliation for piloting in the upcoming implementation period of the Project.
The Joint Project on “Promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in Turkey” is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe. The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Turkey – Directorate General for Criminals Affairs and Directorate General for Legal Affairs are the end beneficiaries of the Project. The Central Finance and Contracts Unit is the contracting authority.
