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 prison monitoring toolkit presented to CMBs in Turkey

@ Council of Europe

A total of 61 representatives of different civil monitoring boards (CMB) in Turkey provided their input to the draft prison monitoring toolkit through their participation and discussion at the first informative meeting on the new CMBs’ monitoring standards and tools.

This meeting was organised online on 15 April 2021, with an aim to familiarize CMB members with the new prison monitoring methodology, checklists, reporting template and to inform them on the relevant international standards, with an aim to establish a uniformed prison monitoring approach across the country. Once put in practice, this toolkit will assist the CMBs in assessing the compliance of prison conditions and treatment vis-a-vis the international standards and the national legislation.

As a result of the fruitful discussions, the CMBs agreed that the toolkit will bring added value to the prison monitoring process, which will provide prison authorities with tailor-made recommendations leading towards improved treatment and more successful rehabilitation of prisoners in Turkey. Additionally, the consultants and the project staff presented some good practices from different European countries on prison monitoring during COVID-19 outbreak, while the CMBs shared their experiences in terms of conducting visits to prisons during the pandemic.

toolkit will continue to be presented to CMBs with seven more informative meetings, followed by piloting phase in different prisons in eight regions of the country, thus testing its applicability in practice.

The meeting was held within 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 and Canada.

Turkey 16 April 2021