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 National Preventive Mechanism staff in Türkiye trained on prison monitoring

@ Council of Europe

A total of 20 staff and experts of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) have benefitted from attending cascade training session on prison monitoring, which took place on 14 October 2022 in Ankara. As the 2022 EU Country Report for Türkiye highlighted the new dynamics in the NPM in tackling human rights issues and in engaging in constructive dialogue with the civil society, the Council of Europe marks its cooperation with the NPM, which is one of our partner institutions in the implementation of the project, by organising training session for its staff,

Methodology for carrying out prison monitoring visits, effective reporting techniques and communication skills and interview techniques in line with international standards, were some of the topics covered during the training session. The training resulted in a common agreement that only enhanced co-operation and coordination between all the actors involved in prison monitoring activities in Türkiye will improve protection of the rights of prisoners. The participants have benefitted from the discussions specifically on the role of the NPM in prison monitoring, including the importance of the NPM’s dialogue with prison directors, staff and prisoners, the importance of respecting the “Do no harm” principle and writing effective recommendations.

The training was delivered by the staff of the NPM, following the organisation of the training of trainers (ToT) sessions in Istanbul in May 2022, as well as publication and dissemination of the Prison Monitoring Handbook for Ombudsman and NPM staff.

The pilot cascade session was implemented in the scope of 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 Türkiye, the Human Rights Trust Fund and Canada.

Turkey 14 October 2022