04/07/2018
For two years, the project has resulted in achievements such as the creation of a strategic plan and a draft of legal amendments to improve Turkish society's access to justice.
For two years, the project has resulted in achievements such as the creation of a strategic plan and a draft of legal amendments to improve Turkish society's access to justice.
The project to improve legal assistance in Turkey, financed by the EU and managed by the FIIAPP together with the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice and Justice Cooperation International (JCI), has carried out a strategic plan signed by the two main institutions involved in the country: the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Union of the Turkish Bar Association (UTBA).
During this time, experts studied the legal aid framework in Turkey, developing recommendations to improve the legal aid system, as well as ways to access the legal profession or to act as an ex officio lawyer. A comparative analysis of 14 different legal aid systems of the EU was carried out for this.
In addition, in this two-year time period, four study visits were organised in order to learn about legal assistance practices in Lithuania, Spain, France and the United Kingdom. All of them enabled the exchange of knowledge on different topics, such as the economic requirements necessary for free access to justice or the legal aid systems themselves, as well as visiting bar associations and courts.
With all the results of these previous activities, the different objectives of the Strategic Plan have been defined, including the identification of vulnerable groups, training needs and how to increase public awareness to guarantee access to justice for all.
The project has also organised activities related to training, with the promotion of access to justice in Turkey for all and the increase in the number of beneficiaries of legal assistance. To achieve this, public awareness and participation campaigns have been carried out.
Finally, a draft of the legal amendments has been written up in accordance with the Strategic Plan. These amendments represent the real changes achieved with this Strategic Plan.
