The 4th Awareness Raising Meeting of the EU-Council of Europe Joint Project “Strengthening the Capacity of Bar Associations and Lawyers on European Human Rights Standards” was organised online on 5 February 2022. Representatives of the Council of Europe and the Union of Turkish Bar Associations as well as the representatives of civil society and human rights centres of local bar associations attended the event together with nearly 300 participants. Opening speeches were delivered by Attorney Sibel Suiçmez, Vice-President of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations; Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara and Sergey Dikman, Council of Europe Project Coordinator. The aim of the meeting was to inform and discuss issues concerning the topic of “Monitoring and Reporting Human Rights Violations”. Sub-topics included elements, standards and norms, types, tools and objectives of monitoring; data collection including information collection methods, standard forms in monitoring, situation and case monitoring; and human rights indicators for analysing available information, evidence-based advocacy and international mechanisms for advocacy. Discussions were undertaken from different perspectives. The information on the sessions, discussion topics and speakers can be reached through this link.
Current issues and challenges covered during the meeting were of interest for all participants, which led to substantial and fruitful discussions.
A report will be prepared to summarise all topic areas and discussions of the meeting, together with conclusions and recommendations on the issues covered.
The Joint Project on “Strengthening the Capacity of Bar Associations and Lawyers on European Human Rights Standards (SCoBAL)” is implemented by the Council of Europe, and co-funded by the European Union, the Republic of Turkey and the Council of Europe. The Union of Turkish Bar Associations is the end beneficiary of the Project. The Central Finance and Contracting Unit is the contracting authority.
