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 Round Table Meetings of the Civil Monitoring Boards in Turkey

The co-operation and coordination between all the mechanisms conducting monitoring visits and inspections to prisons in Turkey further improved following the first two round table meetings aiming to improve the quality of such visits.

The fruitful and very topical discussions among different prison monitors, proved that such meetings significantly contribute towards better understanding of their respective work and that exchange of experiences among different monitoring mechanisms is beneficial for all. The focus of the second-round table was on improving cooperation with CSOs active in this sector aiming to ensure independent monitoring and objective identification of problems related to functioning of the prison system, making it more transparent and humane and preventing human rights violations. As a result, a number of concrete measures were proposed that will contribute to building synergies between all actors with the idea that “coordination and communication is the key to protect the rights of prisoners”.

A total of 114 participants from the Civil Monitoring Boards (CMBs), Ombudsman Institution, Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Inspection Board, National Preventive Mechanism, enforcement judges, public prosecutors, MoJ Board of Controllers and civil society organisation (CSO) representatives benefited from the presentations and discussions on the international standards and best practices regarding efficient prison monitoring.

The two round table meetings were held on 22 October and 12 November 2020 through the KUDO Platform. Following these initial two events, six more round table meeting will be organised within the auspices of the Project “Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Civil Monitoring Boards in Turkey in line with the European Standards” funded by Sweden, Switzerland, the Republic of Turkey, the Human Rights Trust Fund and Canada.

Turkey 22 October/12 November 2020