The Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) Panel, consisting of judges and prosecutors who had completed the courses on “Asylum and ECHR” and ‘’Combatting Human Trafficking’’, was held on 8 November at the Ankara Hilton SA Hotel, in cooperation with the Human Rights Department of the Ministry of Justice of Turkey, under the Action on “Strengthening the human rights protection of migrants and victims of human trafficking in Turkey”. The event brought together judges and prosecutors from different cities in Turkey with representatives of the Council of Europe, the Ministry of Justice of Turkey, the trainers of the courses and the Action team.

In their opening speeches, Deputy Head of Department of the Human Rights Department of Ministry of Justice, Mr Ahmet Müşerref Yakışık and the Head of Co-Operations Programme Division of the Council of Europe, Ms Lilja Gretarsdottir highlighted the importance of the courses for judges and prosecutors, having in mind the high number of migrants in Turkey.

Panel moderator, Mr. Ali Ersoy Kontacı, gave a general overview of the courses offered by the HELP online platform and presented the panel speakers. Panel participants Ms Gizem Ceren Demir Koşan, rapporteur at the Constitutional Court, Mr Mehmet Toprak, rapporteur judge at the Court of Cassation and Mr Ersin Yılmaz, rapporteur judge at the Council of State made presentations on the case law of respected High Courts regarding migration and human trafficking issues.

After the presentations, a question-and-answer session was held under the moderation of Mr Kontacı. Participants posed questions to the panelists and shared their views on the HELP platform and also the HELP courses they completed.

The HELP Panel was organised within the framework of the Action “Strengthening the human rights protection of migrants and victims of human trafficking in Turkey”, part of the European Union/Council of Europe collaboration “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.