The fourth and last thematic round-table took place on 26 March 2019 in Ankara. The round table meeting gathered 52 participants, including representatives and inspectors from the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Justice, the Council of Judges and Prosecutors, judges and prosecutors from the first instance courts, the Regional Court of Appeals, the Constitutional Court, the Ombudsman Institution and Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey.
The participants from different organisations focused on analysing different sets of laws and secondary legislation on criminal, disciplinary and administrative frameworks in terms of coherence of the legal texts and legal practices in effective investigation, proceedings and penitentiary services. The Ministry of Interior also presented a summary of draft regulation (secondary) on the independent police complaints body, which is envisaged to become more operational, by including establishment of the central complaint data base system, following adoption of the regulation in 2019.
The input collected from participants through groups’ discussions will contribute to the development of the needs assessment and recommendations report as proposal for coherence of the criminal, disciplinary and administrative frameworks in interaction of law-enforcement, security and military agencies and prosecution/judiciary in the effective investigation of alleged acts.
Before the round table, the consultation meeting was organised on 25 March 2019 in Ankara with few members of the human rights centres of the Union of Turkish Bar Association (UTBA). The aim of the meeting was to discuss about the most pressing issues regarding domestic legislation and judicial practices related to investigation of ill-treatment allegations. The input collected through the exchange and discussion will serve to complement the needs assessment and recommendations report.
The Project “Improving the Effectiveness of Investigation of Allegations of Ill-Treatment and Combatting 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.
