Justice and Human Rights

Introduction

Justice is a core element of welfare and peace building. It is one of the most essential human values and a precondition for equality, equity, fairness, and respect for others’ rights.

All stakeholders involved in pursuing socio-economic development need to embrace the concept of justice; and justice and respect for human rights must be integral to all systems created by the socio-economic development process itself.

We promote justice and better access to justice for all parts of society. We support legal reform processes and work to increase the capacity of public and private institutions in the justice sector, including prison institutions, ministries, courts, independent judicial institutions and civil society organisations. We also increase the quality of services in the justice sector by reviewing and helping to improve legal frameworks. All our interventions take full and careful account local dynamics.

Drawing on the experience gained in our projects relating to moral principles and norms, such as human rights and gender equality, we ensure these principles are applied as crosscutting issues in other projects in different fields.

Key areas :

Judiciary and fundamental rights
Human rights monitoring and protection
Fighting organised crime
Criminal policy
Penitentiary and probation systems

Modernisation and harmonisation of legislative frameworks
Democratic support
Institutional bolstering of justice institutions
Improvement of national law/justice systems
Legal alignment with the EU acquis

Under the framework of these projects, we have:

9.000

Designed and delivered training programmes for more than 9.000 persons within the scope of customised training programmes, workshops, etc.

Organised more than 20 study visits to EU Member States and other countries presenting best practices in relation to justice sector reform, protection and promotion of human rights

8.000

Reached more than 8.000 persons within the scope of communication, awareness raising, publicity and visibility campaigns addressing human rights promotion and advocacy

30.000

Contacted more than 30.000 persons to understand their needs and grasp the current state of affairs on justice sector processes and monitoring and protection of human rights.

56.000

Prepared more than 56.000 promotional and visibility materials

OUR SENIOR TRAINING EXPERT FROM THE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR SUPPORT TO THE LOCAL HUMAN RIGHTS BOARDS AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS AWARENESS (INKAP), MS SARA COCCHI, STATED THAT:

INKAP was a unique, multi-faceted, project that aimed at strengthening human rights protection in Turkey through the unprecedented involvement of Local Human Rights Boards. Its broad range of training activities on fundamental human rights were complemented by debates and strategies on violation complaint-taking and processing, thus generating vivid debates in a diverse audience made up of board members with different backgrounds and community leaders. I am proud to say that our team of national and international experts trained more than 2.500 participants from all 81 provinces across Turkey and produced handbooks and training materials on women’s and children’s rights which were subsequently made available by Turkish Human Rights and Equality Institution. NGOs were also involved throughout the implementation of the Project. One of INKAP’s added values was certainly its focus on awareness raising, which was pursued through school visits and competitions for children, the production of informational materials, short animations…and even a feature film! INKAP showed that human rights are really a cross-cutting priority whose protection requires joint efforts from all sectors of our society.

A Mission Proven and Thoroughly Accomplished

Improving enforcement services in prisons in Turkey

Working with the Turkish Ministry of Justice and the General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses we sought ways to improve the penitentiary system in Turkey in line with international and EU prison standards. We focused on the rehabilitation, treatment and successful re-integration of prisoners from various criminal backgrounds by developing and applying motivation, risk and profile assessment tools to intervention programmes tailored to individual criminal profiles. The project was one of the first of its kind in Turkey, making it possible for prison staff all over the country looking at psychosocial motivating factors to pinpoint why crimes had been committed, thereby reducing the risk of recidivism in the Turkish penitentiary system.

Country
Turkey

Value
€ 1.899.000

Beneficiary
Ministry of Justice, General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses

Donor
European Union

Dates
26.11.2014 – 26.11.2016