The 1st Roundtable Meeting of the European Union-Council of Europe Joint Project on “Supporting the Effective Implementation of Turkish Constitutional Court (TCC) Judgments in the Field of Fundamental Rights” was held in hybrid format on 7 February 2022. The roundtable meeting brought judges of district execution courts together with the Turkish Constitutional Court (TCC) rapporteurs for a discussion on the interferences with fundamental rights in penitentiary institutions in the context of individual applications. High level representatives of the TCC, the Ministry of Justice and the Council of Europe Ankara and Strasbourg offices were also present in the meeting.
The meeting was opened with the keynote speeches of Mr Yunus Alkaç (Ministry of Justice, Director General of Prisons and Detention Houses), Mr Cristian Urse (Council of Europe, Head of the Programme Office in Ankara) and Mr Hasan Tahsin Gökcan (Deputy President of the Turkish Constitutional Court).
Organised in peer-to-peer format, the roundtable meeting allowed in-depth discussions on the following key themes: freedom of expression of prisoners (e.g. chanting, hunger strikes); right to privacy in prison (surveillance of correspondence and visits, gifts); right to education (access to books, sitting exams); right to an effective remedy (legal review of measures), fair trial rights and disciplinary measures. The crucial nature of reasoning of decisions was highlighted throughout the entire meeting by the TCC rapporteurs.
This highly interactive meeting allowed the TCC rapporteurs to address practical questions of the execution court judges on the criteria developed by the TCC. In turn, the judges and the Ministry of Justice representatives offered an insight into the practical and systemic challenges they face in daily practice.
At the end of the day, participants expressed their gratitude for such a useful event. The judges also stated that they would be using the TCC case law they found about in the event, and that the discussions offered a fresh perspective.
The Joint Project on “Supporting the Effective Implementation of Turkish Constitutional Court Judgments in the Field of Fundamental Rights” is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe. The Turkish Constitutional Court is the end beneficiary of the Project.
