An online kick-off event to launch the tutored online HELP (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) course on “Access to Justice for Women” was organised for legal professionals in Turkey on 29 March 2022. 250 legal aid lawyers from four Bar Associations (Ordu, Nevsehir, Diyarbakır and Mugla) participated in the launching event, showing interest and commitment to enhance women’s access to justice and legal aid in Turkey.
In the launch, the participants had the opportunity to learn about the Council of Europe Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals Programme (HELP), its methodology and the specific HELP course on “Access to Justice for Women”, which was recently translated and adopted to legal system of Turkey. They met their tutors, who will supervise the delivery of the online course for the following four weeks through the HELP e-learning platform, as well as online discussion groups and forums.
Six comprehensive modules of the course, together with its local adaptation package, were introduced to the participants by eight certified national HELP tutors, expert in gender equality and women’s human rights.
Reflections on the development of the course and its implementation in different countries were shared by Elisabeth Duban, an international consultant. In the topical session, Prof. Dr. Gulriz Uygur, national tutor, presented the main barriers for women’s access to justice and legal aid in Turkey and emphasised that “gender discrimination and stereotypes are not about knowledge but about attitudes and biases among legal professionals, an important issue that this HELP course addresses”.
During the event, relevant Council of Europe resources on “Guaranteeing Equal Access of Women to Justice” and “Gender Equality and Women’s Rights: Council of Europe standards”, available now in Turkish, were shared with the participants.
As a way forward, the participating lawyers are expected to increase their awareness and understanding about women’s access to justice and eventually contribute to the provision of gender-sensitive legal aid services for women in the selected pilot provinces in Turkey.
The launch was organised within the framework of the action “Fostering women’s access to justice in Turkey” being implemented under the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.
