Turkey to hold 'Justice Summit' to fix judicial deficiencies

ANKARA

The Justice Ministry will hold a summit with the participation of all relevant stakeholders on Nov. 29 in a bid to address existing judicial problems and as part of efforts to update the Judicial Reform Strategy, a step the European Union has long been demanding from the Turkish government.

The summit will focus on ways how to re-build trust in judiciary, to speed up judicial processes, to reform the legal education and to recruit professionals into the field of law, to strengthen the defense and to mull over alternative dispute resolution methods, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Nov. 28.

The summit will also revise ongoing works on the Judicial Reform Strategy Document which is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

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The summit will be organized with the expected participation of Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül, presidents of high courts, members of the Supreme Court, State Council and Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), president of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), Yekta Saraç, president of Union of Bar Association, Metin Feyzioğlu, many law school deans and academicians and presidents of divisional courts.

Having previous issues from the years 2009 and 2015, the preparation for updating the Judicial Reform Strategy Document began on Aug. 10 with the aid from academic circles, practitioners, bar associations and lawyers.

Within the scope of these preparations, development plans, reports of Specialization Commission and Ombudsman Institution were screened; publications of scientific events held by the Ministries and universities on various dates and works of non-governmental organizations were also approached.

Workload of the public prosecutors and the courts and average duration of investigations and cases were evaluated with a situation analysis.