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 Revision of the legislative framework regarding Civil Monitoring Boards in Turkey

@ Council of Europe

The first steps towards making the selection procedure of the Civil Monitoring Boards (CMBs) members more transparent and accessible, were taken at the first working group (WG) meeting on revision of the CMB regulatory framework, held on 5-6 February 2020.

The participants considered the adoption of the legal framework by the Turkish authorities and the establishment of the CMBs in 2001, a huge step forward. Furthermore, they confirmed that amendments to certain provisions of the Law on CMBs would lead to a further enhancement of their independence and effectiveness. Some of the aspects discussed during the WG meeting were strengthening the CMBs composition and ensuring gender equality, improving selection procedure, allowing the publication of their reports and fine-tuning the competences and duties of CMBs Coordination Bureau.

As a result, the process of drafting amendments to the CMBs legislative framework was initiated in the light of the recommendations in the assessment report and the baseline study, and it is expected to be completed by May 2020.

CMB members coming from different regions of Turkey, enforcement judges, prosecutors, MoJ inspectors, prison controllers and representatives of the Directorate General for Prisons and Detention Houses attended the meeting, which was facilitated by one international and one national consultant.

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

Ankara, Turkey 5-6 February 2020