Project on Training of the Turkish Candidate Judges and Public Prosecutors on Human Rights and Strengthening the Local Capacity for the Internalization of Human Rights Standards implemented by the Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law and Human Rights Law Research Center in partnership with the Turkish Justice Academy, The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights (SIM) and International Office of the Law Faculty of Utrecht University was concluded through a closing conference which was hosted by Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law. 

The project was funded by MATRA Programme of Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and carried out between years 2007-2009. The target group of the project was candidate judges and prosecutors of the Turkish Judiciary. 

The project aimed at increasing the legal, institutional and professional experience and knowledge of candidate judges and prosecutors of the Turkish judiciary and improving their capacity on international standards of protection and promotion of human rights and their domestic application. 

In order to achieve the goal of the project, 11 weekly trainings were conducted for a target audience of nearly 700 candidate judges and prosecutors in the Turkish Justice Academy on introduction to international human rights law, the European Human Rights Convention, incorporation of the international human rights norms into the Turkish legislation and direct application of these norms in the legal practice and other human rights and freedoms as well. 

In the closing phase of the project a conference entitled “Judiciary and Human Rights” was held on 11-12 September 2009. On the first day, there were three open sessions covering presentations and discussions conducted: “Judiciary and Human Rights: Conceptual Framework and Policy”, “Structural Functions of Judiciary and Human Rights”, “Training of Judges and Public Prosecutors and Human Rights”. On the second day of the conference there were two workshops conducted with the invited participants: “Judiciary Code of Conduct and Human Rights” and “Civil and Criminal Proceedings and Human Rights”. 

Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı, Prof. Dr. Sibel İnceoğlu, Dr. Galma Jahic, İdil Elveriş, Seda Kalem, Sami Sezai Ural, Dr. Yalçın Şahinkaya, Eyüp Yıldız, Rob Cremers, Birsen Erdoğan, Leo Zwaak, İdlir Peçi, Prof. Dr. Osman Doğru and Ass. Prof. Asuman Aytekin İnceoğlu have attended the sessions during the conference.