The right to liberty and security, reasonable length of proceedings and recent reforms in Türkiye to combat cybercrime and the financing of terrorism featured among top issues discussed today at the final conference of the Project on Strengthening the Criminal Justice System and the Capacity of Justice Professionals on Prevention of the European Convention on Human Rights Violations in Türkiye.
Under the impulse of this action financed by the European Union and the Council of Europe, the number of cybercrime prosecution offices was brought from 8 to 149 within Türkiye. Coordination mechanisms within Turkish institutions and with the private sector, open court days accessible to citizens were established and will be continued as a good practice, announced Yılmaz Tunç, Minister of Justice in front of an audience of over 350 legal professionals.
In this context, Christophe Poirel, Director of Human Rights of the Council of Europe remarked: “It is in the Council of Europe’s DNA to transfer human rights experiences and practices from the global to the local scale. And we can observe that this project has been successful in putting forward good practices from other Council of Europe member States, whether through visits to institutions abroad, or through its network of experts joining peer-to-peer exchanges in Türkiye.”
Forty-five percent of judges in Türkiye currently have less than 5 years of experience, making it critical to deploy quality training programmes. Through this project, over 4,000 judges and prosecutors from across Türkiye benefited from 12 full-fledged, tailor-made courses, which have now become part of the Justice Academy’s regular curricula. “The success of criminal justice reform hinges on the rule of law being accepted and practised by all actors in the justice system,” summarised Mr Alexander Fricke, Head of the Civil Society, Fundamental Rights, Justice and Home Affairs Section of the Delegation of the European Union to Türkiye.
This activity was organised under the EU/CoE Joint Project “Strengthening the Criminal Justice System and the Capacity of Justice Professionals on Prevention of the European Convention on Human Rights Violations in Türkiye”.
