The joint European Union and Council of Europe Action on "Fostering a comprehensive institutional response to violence against women and domestic violence in Turkey” aims at strengthening institutional mechanisms in Turkey to co-ordinate and effectively apply the standards of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) and developing knowledge and skills of key authorities responsible for preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, protecting victims/survivors and prosecuting the perpetrators of violence.

Based on recommendations stemming from the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) and the Committee of the Parties to the Istanbul Convention, the action will contribute to the following areas that have been identified together with the public authorities based on their needs and priorities for the forthcoming years:

• Strengthening candidate and in-service trainings for legal professionals (judges and prosecutors), law enforcement officers, including the police and gendarmerie, support service providers and other public authorities.
• Strengthening multi-agency co-operation and multi-disciplinary approaches to cases of violence against women.
• Further developing capacities of judicial support services and officials working in judicial interview rooms and Judicial Support and Victim Services’ Directorates.
• Increasing awareness of relevant ministries and public officials on the need for data collection and analysis on cases of violence against women and domestic violence.

Title of the action: Fostering a Comprehensive Institutional Response to Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in Turkey

Duration: 30 months (November 2019-May 2022)

Budget: 800.000 EUR

Funding: The action is implemented under the Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey II (2019-2022), a joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe (85% funded by the European Union, 15% by the Council of Europe).

Beneficiary Institutions: the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services, the Ministry of Justice, the Justice Academy of Turkey, the Ministry of Interior, the Police and Gendarmerie.

Target groups:

Activities will be conducted within the scope of the Action for the following groups:

• Judges and prosecutors working on cases of violence against women and domestic violence;
• Law enforcement officers, including the police and gendarmerie;
• Administrative authorities in provinces (governors and sub-governors);
• Support service officials working in SONIMs, shelter houses, etc.;
• Judicial support officials working in judicial interview rooms.

Objective of the Action: The overall objective of the Action is to contribute to better prevention, prosecution and protection against all forms of violence against women, in line with the Istanbul Convention.

Revision and development of training materials: revision and development of training programmes/ curricula and materials to strengthen candidate and in-service training of legal and law enforcement professionals and support service providers.

Specialised trainings in the form of training of trainers, cascade trainings and online trainings for legal professionals (prosecutors and judges), law enforcement officers, including the police and the gendarmerie, administrative authorities such as governor and sub-governors, and social workers/support service providers upon revision of the training materials, programme and the curricula.

Study visit to an EU country: to have peer-to-peer exchanges on policies and practices to prevent and combat violence against women, including multi-agency co-operation.

Preparation of guidelines/checklists: that will include recommendations and promising practices of other countries on multi-agency cooperation to combating violence against women and on judicial interview techniques for judicial support officers.

Round tables and Seminars: to share promising practices and strengthen multi-agency and victim-centred approaches to cases of violence against women, including data collection.

• Institutional mechanisms to co-ordinate and effectively apply European standards, notably the Istanbul Convention are strengthened.
• Increased knowledge and skills are applied by relevant authorities when dealing with cases of violence against women, including sexual violence.