Report: Citizens should be included to uphold judiciary
by Daily Sabah
ISTANBULDec 13, 2014 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah
Dec 13, 2014 12:00 am
A needs assessment report and recommendation for the criminal justice system, including 50 recommendations to uphold the current system was published yesterday. Touching on steps to uphold the judiciary, the report recommended to introduce citizen participation in the operation of criminal justice except in circumstances such as cases of terrorism, organized crime or international drug trafficking.
Financed by the EU, EU Council and Turkey, the report said that the recruitment process for judges and prosecutors should be broadened by opening access to the judiciary more generously to outsiders.
"Judges and prosecutors should be encouraged to expand their experience during their careers, through temporary appointments, sabbatical years or internships outside the judiciary or abroad. In the same spirit, secondary students could be invited into courtrooms to attend trials and 'open days' could be organized in courthouses," the report said.
With a move to improve the impartiality of judges and prosecutors, the report listed several recommendations: "Prosecutors should be clearly differentiated from judges while judges and prosecutors should have closer personal social relations with lawyers. It would be useful to lay down the basic principles of criminal procedure in the first article of the CCP [Cultural Contact Point], so that judges can refer to the spirit of the law rather than applying mere technical rules."
Touching on the training issue, the report said that the Justice Academy should have permanent, specially trained staff with a new pre-service curriculum and new methodology. The report also said that pre-service should last two years and in-service training should be compulsory.
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