The first working group meeting for developing a template for a standardised complaint form and a data base was organised in Ankara on 1-2 April 2024 with the participation of representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Ombudsman Institution, and Human Rights and Equality Institution. The meeting discussed how complaints are handled at penitentiary institutions at present and sought to agree on a draft template for the complaint form to be used in the disciplinary and reward mechanism in prisons.

Following the discussions among various professionals facilitated by Council of Europe consultants, the working group drafted templates for complaint, appeal and request forms to be used by prisoners. The draft templates will be further refined by the consultants; their potential for integration into UYAP system[1] will be discussed in a follow-up meeting in May 2024. It is expected that once the complaint and request forms are put in place, they will facilitate the implementation of the disciplinary and rewards system in a unified manner and in line with best practices from other Council of Europe member states.  

This WG meeting was organised within the scope of the Project on "Enhancing the Disciplinary and Reward Procedures for Prisoners in Türkiye” co-funded by Norway, the Human Rights Trust Fund of the Council of Europe, Belgium, Türkiye, and the Netherlands.