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 Monitoring methodology and tools for Turkish Civil Monitoring Boards advanced

The Project “Enhancing the effectiveness of the Civil Monitoring Boards (CMB) in line with the European standards” has continued the implementation of the project activities in line with the mitigation measures plan introduced due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In that manner, the Project advanced its work with respect to developing the CMBs’ monitoring tools and instruments, aiming at establishing a uniformed methodology and setting minimum standards encompassing all prison monitoring stages (preparation, conducting the visit, reporting and follow-up).

As a result, a total of four prison monitoring tools have been prepared by international consultants based on the assessment findings and the recommendations from the discussion papers developed under the previous activities. Namely, the draft checklist of issues to be examined by CMBs when visiting prisons, the CMB’s methodology on conducting prison visits and instructions on drafting an effective post-visit report were prepared, together with set of international standards pertinent to the CMBs mandate.

The draft tools were shared with the Working Group (WG) members composed of CMB members, enforcement judges, prosecutors, justice inspectors, prison controllers and the representatives of the National Prevention Mechanism and the Directorate General for Prisons and Detention Houses, and will be finalised during the upcoming WG meetings in light of their feedback.

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

Turkey April-May 2020