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 piloting of the new prison monitoring toolkit further enhances CMB members’ skills

@ Council of Europe

Following the development of the new prison monitoring toolkit earlier this year, the first three on-site coaching sessions for the members of the Civil Monitoring Boards (CMBs) were conducted successfully.

These sessions, aiming at testing the applicability of the toolkit within prison context, covered all prison monitoring stages, namely preparation, conducting the visit, reporting and follow-up to the visit. They contributed towards establishing a more uniformed prison monitoring approach throughout Turkey and enhanced the capacities of the involved CMB members in better assessing the compliance of prison conditions and treatment vis-a-vis the applicable international standards and national legislation.

The CMB members assessed the piloting sessions as very useful and helpful, since they not only further strengthened their monitoring skills, but also enabled them to recognise their shortcomings when interviewing prisoners and writing an effective monitoring report. The importance of collecting information and their triangulation throughout all the phases of the monitoring has been emphasised during the sessions.

The first on-site coaching took place in Sincan Prison (Ankara) from 20-24 September 2021, the second one in Antalya Prison from 24-28 October 2021, while the third session took place in Menemen Prison (İzmir) from 6-10 December 2021. Five CoE consultants, out of which 3 former CPT members, facilitated the coaching sessions for a total of 31 CMBs members. The piloting will continue in 2022 and detailed evaluation reports with recommendations for improvements will follow each pilot visit.

These activities were organised within 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 Turkey, the Human Rights Trust Fund of the Council of Europe and Canada.

Turkey 10 December 2021