A group of judges in training from the Turkish Justice Academy recently went on a study visit to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The study visit participants will work as judges at the administrative courts in Turkey after completing the training program at the Justice Academy.
Mr. Gökhan Karaköse, the Head of the International Relations and Projects Department at the Turkish Justice Academy, says the study visit was very useful for trainee judges and prosecutors because they all had a chance to gain different aspect with regard to human rights and freedoms protected by the European Convention of Human Rights. “We believe that they will be able to use the decisions and jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights when they start their professional career as judges and prosecutors,” says Karaköse.
The participants visited the ECtHR, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. They participated in the presentations made by the court representatives and officials. They also attended the court hearing “Armani da Silva v. the United Kingdom” and had a chance to see the actual functioning of the court.
RWI and the Turkish Justice Academy have been cooperating since 2011 to boost the human rights capacity of students.
The Justice Academy of Turkey, which serves as the training center for trainee judges and prosecutors, was established in 2005 in Ankara, Turkey. The academy has a very broad mandate and it is responsible for pre-service trainings for trainee judges and prosecutors and also in-service trainings for judges and prosecutors in Turkey.
RWI and the Justice Academy of Turkey have organised many trainings and seminars on human rights, as well as study visits and also translated a core human rights book into Turkish. Under the current programme, RWI has been supporting the Human Rights Unit of the Justice Academy and also implementing a distance learning program on human rights for judges and prosecutors.
“RWI and the Justice Academy plan to continue to organise study visits to the ECtHR for trainee judges and prosecutors,” says Ozlem Altiparmak, Programme Officer in Turkey.