A total of 47 participants provided their input to the draft prison monitoring toolkit through their participation and discussion at the online Round Table (RT) held on 4 February 2021. The RT participants were representatives of the civil monitoring boards (CMBs), civil society organisations (CSOs), the Ombudsman Institution, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Inspection Board and Board of Controllers, the National Preventive Mechanism, enforcement judges, public prosecutors, academia, as well as the project donors.
The CMBs monitoring standards and tools have been developed with an aim to establish a uniformed methodology and set minimum standards encompassing all prison monitoring stages. Once put in practice, this toolkit will assist the CMBs in assessing the compliance of prison conditions and treatment with the international standards and domestic legislation. The RT marks the completion of the drafting process of the monitoring toolkit, which has started in April 2020.
The RT participants agreed that the toolkit will bring added value to the prison monitoring process, which will provide prison authorities with tailor-made recommendations leading towards improved treatment and more successful rehabilitation of prisoners in Turkey.
The toolkit will be further presented during informative meetings with the CMBs, followed by piloting phase in eight different prisons which will test its applicability in practice.
The meeting was held 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.
