Enhancing the effectiveness of Civil Monitoring Boards in Türkiye in line with European Standards

The Civil Monitoring Boards (CMBs) have been actively involved in the external monitoring of the penitentiary system in the Republic of Türkiye through conducting on-site visits since 2001. The main task of CMBs is to conduct civil monitoring visits to the prisons and produce reports with binding recommendations for the Ministry of Justice. The deficiency of standards within the monitoring process, as well as the inadequate capacities and lack of training opportunities for the members, remained at unsatisfactory level for a long period of time.

The current “learning by doing” system should be replaced by an institutionalized training system. Therefore, there is an urgent need to work on the capacity building of the CMBs, as well as on increasing the quality of the whole process of the selection and training of its members in order to reach the European standards. Only a well-functioning external monitoring mechanism will contribute to a better penal system by decreasing the human rights breaches.

The Project was divided in 4 components:

Strengthening CMBs independence through revision of the applicable legal and regulatory framework in line with the international standards;
Enhancing CMBs efficiency by further developing their monitoring standards and working methodology and tools;
Ensuring sustainable training provision for the CMB members; and
Improving CMBs internal coordination and communication with other external monitoring mechanisms.

This Project was estimated to cover approximately 100 activities to be implemented by 31 May 2022, with an overall budget of 1,600,000 Euros.

Project documentation

Useful information

PROJECT NEWS

Back 5th Steering Committee Meeting under the Civil Monitoring Boards (CMBs) Project in Turkey

@ Council of Europe

The fifth Steering Committee (SC) meeting of the Project “Enhancing the Effectiveness of the CMBs in line with the European Standards” took place in a hybrid format on 5 October 2021 in Ankara. The results achieved over the last 6-month period (April-September 2021) were presented, along with an information on the need to extend the project on no-cost basis in order to complete it as planned and ensure sustainable impact, without jeopardising the quality of the outputs and the effectiveness of the project activities.

the achievements highlighted were the finalisation of the three prison monitoring handbooks and the preparation of the CMBs training modules, as well as raising the awareness among 395 CMB members on the new prison monitoring toolkit developed by the project. Further-more, the SC members noted the increase of the CMBs’ visibility among prisoners and professional public, which was achieved by distributing leaflets explaining their mandate and how they could further assist prisoners. Finally, the first on-site piloting of the new monitoring toolkit at Sincan Prison was evaluated as a success.

The meeting brought together 31 participants, including representatives from the Ministry of Justice Directorate General for Prisons and Detention Houses, representatives of CMBs, civil society, enforcement judge, public prosecutor, the Ministry of Justice Directorate General for Foreign and EU Affairs, Embassy of Switzerland, Embassy of Sweden and Embassy of Canada in Ankara, as well as the Council of Europe. The SC members engaged in fruitful discussion on the attained results and the future activities and, as a result, adopted the work plan for the upcoming period (October 2021 – 31 March 2022) and agreed on the need for no-cost extension of the project.

The Project “Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Civil Monitoring Boards in Turkey in line with the European Standards” is funded by Sweden, Switzerland, the Republic of Turkey, the Human Rights Trust Fund and Canada.

Turkey 8 October 2021