Expectations from Access to Justice and Judiciary at Societal and Political Levels in Turkey

As PODEM, we will carry out a new research project titled “Expectations from Access to Justice and Judiciary at Societal and Political Levels in Turkey” which is supported under the European Commission’s European Union Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) Program.

The main aim of the European Union Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) Program is to support civil society all around the world in the protection and promotion of democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms. We will carry out the activities of our research project covering the 2020-2021 working period in partnership with two institutions based in Diyarbakır, namely KAMER, a civil society organization that operates in the field of women’s studies and DİSA, a political and social research institute.

We will be carrying out this project under our judicial, justice and legal studies. With participation of civil society organizations, we aim to discuss, strengthen and contribute to the reform process implemented by new government system on judiciary, law and administrative processes. By this, we will be contributing to shape the mechanisms of access to justice in line with current needs and expectations. In the first phase of our study, where the rights-based approach will be taken as the basic principle, field studies will be carried out in 15 provinces with women, refugees, ethnic minorities and religious minorities. In these field studies, besides the field research and dissemination workshops that will be carried out based on our 4 target groups, expert interviews and expert workshops will also be held.

At the second phase of the project, we aim to contribute to policy making processes with the thematic workshops that we will be organizing. In these workshops, we will bring together senior representatives from relevant ministries, decision-makers, lawyers, jurists, sociologists and civil society representatives from different fields. With the thematic workshops focusing on (1) Reform on Law, System and Judiciary, (2) Law of Rights and Freedoms, (3) Asylum and Refugee Law, (4) Law of Local Administrations and (5) Law of Elections and Political Parties, we aim to share the findings of the field research carried out in the first phase of the project with stakeholders that are effective in policy making processes and public.

With the policy suggestions and analysis reports which we will be publishing during the project, we aim to raise awareness on access to justice and, legal and judicial reform among public.