The first training for twenty judges and prosecutors on the prohibition of ill-treatment and combating impunity took place on 18-19 January 2019 in Ankara, Turkey, in partnership with Ministry of Justice. The training was successfully delivered by the national trainers, who were trained under the project following the adopted training manual on the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights on prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. Twenty participants discussed and learnt about the effective investigation and applied their knowledge into practice through participating in the moot-court session on the second day of the training programme. Two national consultants also provided guidance and supervision for the new trainers.

Assessment of the training (pre- and post-level knowledge tests) has shown increased participants’ knowledge about the investigation of ill-treatment, the key features of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and its scope of application.

Two more additional cascade training sessions will take place in the following months. Final training programme is planned to be included in the in-service training programme of the Training Department of the Ministry of Justice.

The Project “Improving the Effectiveness of Investigation of Allegations of Ill-Treatment and Combating Impunity in Turkey” is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the Human Rights Trust Fund, and implemented by the Council of Europe in partnership with the Human Rights Department within the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Turkey.