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 ENHANCED COOPERATION BETWEEN SELECTED UNIVERSITIES AND THE DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR PRISONS AND DETENTION HOUSES ON TRAINING PROVISON FOR THE CIVIL MONITORING BOARDS

ENHANCED COOPERATION BETWEEN SELECTED UNIVERSITIES AND THE DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR PRISONS AND DETENTION HOUSES ON TRAINING PROVISON FOR THE CIVIL MONITORING BOARDS

The aim of the project “Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Civil Monitoring Boards in line with the European Standards”, implemented by the Council of Europe in close cooperation with the civil monitoring boards (CMBs) for prisons and detention houses and the Directorate General of Prisons and Detention Houses (DGPDH), is to strengthen the institutional and operational framework and capacities of the CMBs. The project currently works on ensuring a sustainable training provision for the CMBs that will significantly improve the quality of the civil monitoring system and enhance the capacity, knowledge and skills of CMB members on prison monitoring, aligning it with European best practices.

In that direction, following a transparent procedure, 8 (eight) Universities across Turkey were selected. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on setting-up regional training capacities has been signed between the DGPDH and the following universities:

Dokuz Eylül University
Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University
Gaziantep University
Hacı Bayram Veli University
İstanbul University
Kocaeli University
Özyeğin University
TOBB University of Economics and Technology

The universities will have active role in developing the training curricula and materials for the CMB members and delivering the cascade training sessions in their respective region. The cooperation between the DGPDH and the universities will also pave the way for raising public awareness on the role and responsibilities of the CMBs, thus increasing understanding of their mandate and how they can best assist prisoners and citizens in the country. The universities, serving as regional training facilitators and coordinators, will also benefit from the training package by offering it as part of their curricula, thus even further maximazing the outreach by spreading the importance on conducting human rights compliant prison montiring among their students.

The Project is co-funded by Sweden, Switzerland, the Republic of Turkey, the Human Rights Trust Fund (HRTF)[1] and Canada. The project will support the training development and dissemination, both financially and technically, until project’s completion foreseen for 31 May 2022.

[1] The HRTF brings together seven contributors: Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Turkey April 2021