The working group, composed of Civil Monitoring Boards (CMBs) members, Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Inspection Board, National Preventive Mechanism, enforcement judges, public prosecutors, MoJ Board of Controllers, coming from different regions of Turkey, met in Ankara on 17-18 November 2020, where they discussed the draft CMBs’ monitoring toolkit.
The establishment of a uniformed methodology and tools, and setting the minimum standards encompassing all prison monitoring stages (preparation, conducting the visit, reporting and follow-up) will assist CMBs in conducting prison monitoring to assess the compliance of conditions and treatment with the international standards and domestic legislation.
The process of drafting which has started in April 2020, was finalized at this meeting. Three consultants and CoE Secretariat representative made online presentations and facilitated the fruitful discussions among the prison monitors and received the necessary feedback to be reflected in the final version of the monitoring tools and standards. The toolkit will be further presented during a Round table in front of all relevant stakeholders.
The meeting was organised as a hybrid event within the Project entitled “Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Civil Monitoring Boards in Turkey in line with the European Standards” funded by Sweden, Switzerland, the Republic of Turkey, the Human Rights Trust Fund and Canada.
