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 The capacities of the Civil Monitoring Boards (CMBs) in Turkey enhanced, concluded at the project’s sixth Steering Committee Meeting

@ Council of Europe

The results achieved over the period from October 2021 to April 2022, were presented at the sixth Steering Committee (SC) meeting of the Project “Enhancing the Effectiveness of the CMBs in line with the European Standards”, which took place in a hybrid format on 12 April 2022 in Ankara. Among the achievements highlighted in the meeting were the dissemination of the three prison monitoring handbooks, finalisation of the on-site coaching sessions and training materials and modules, launching the fully functional website (www.izlemekurulu.gov.tr) as well as development of the web platform. Furthermore, all SC members noted the increase in the quality of reports of CMBs with specific recommendations, following the organisation of the numerous on-site coaching sessions, round tables, annual meeting, and other capacity building activities.

The meeting brought together 27 participants, including representatives from the Ministry of Justice Directorate General for Prisons and Detention Houses, representatives of CMBs, National Preventive Mechanism, Ombudsman Institution, civil society, enforcement judge, public prosecutor, the Ministry of Justice Directorate General for Foreign and EU Affairs, Embassy of Switzerland and Embassy of Sweden, as well as the Council of Europe. The SC members engaged in fruitful discussion on the attained results and the future activities and, as a result, adopted the work plan for the upcoming period (April – September 2022) and agreed on the need for a no-cost extension for the project.

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

Ankara, Turkey 12 April 2022