On 31 January 2022, the first Steering Committee Meeting of the European Union/Council of Europe joint project “Fostering Women’s Access to Justice in Turkey” was held in Ankara, Turkey, in a hybrid meeting format.
Representatives of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, as well as three civil society organisations took part in fruitful discussions on the importance of the project and how to ensure sustainable achievements of the project.
Mr. Cristian Urse, the Head of Ankara Program Office of the Council of Europe highlighted that the action on “Women’s Access to Justice is an ambitious project which deals with urgent and sensitive topics and will develop the capacity of legal aid professionals”.
Ms. Sibel Suiçmez, Vice Chair of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations stressed the importance of continued cooperation between the Union of Turkish Bar Associations and the Council of Europe and stated that “Women’s issues are a democracy issue; not an individual but a collective issue. As UTBA, we carry on working on women’s access to justice in each bar association and would like to express our gratitude to take part in this project. We believe that this project will raise awareness on women’s access justice and gender equality in Turkey.”
This meeting was organised under the action on “Fostering women’s access to justice in Turkey” implemented under the European Union and Council of Europe’s joint “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, that aims to enhance accessibility and quality of legal aid services for women and support key stakeholders, including civil society, to facilitate women’s access to justice in Turkey.
