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Performance Criteria for Legal Aid Services
Under its last component of the Phase I, the Project brought together lawyers from all provinces in the regional meetings held between 28 September and 23 November 2018 in Antalya, Istanbul, Gaziantep, Samsun, Konya, Ankara and Manisa. The regional meetings served as platforms where lawyers exchanged views and recommendations on addressing the problems in legal aid.
So, what was discussed in these meetings?
The European Commission’s Progress Reports on Turkey have for years consistently assessed the quality of legal aid in our country as “inadequate, worrying and low quality”. The “Performance Criteria of the Attorneys Performing Legal Aid” being developed under the 3rd Component of the SILA Project set out to address exactly this concern, and aimed to improve the conditions particularly for disadvantaged groups. The criteria are now being finalised with the feedback from lawyers from 79 bar associations who participated in 10 meetings (8 regional and 2 consultation). Emphasising the concepts of monitoring and evaluation, the work will result in increased quality as well as further work motivating the lawyers providing legal aid.
Following the conclusion of the meetings November, Prof. Dr. Gülriz Uygur and Lawyer Musa Toprak, both experts in the Project, defined the criteria as “a basis for professional code of conduct for lawyers who provide legal aid services.” Advisory in nature, the text includes core ethical principles guiding the lawyers who provide legal aid services as well as the criteria with which the lawyers training in this area must comply in dealing with applicants including vulnerable groups such as women, children, LGBTIQ individuals, refugees and persons with disabilities.
Monitoring and Evaluation System
While the grant rate of applications requesting legal aid in Turkish bar associations is above 90%, statistics may unfortunately fail to give an accurate picture. Bar associations have to admit the applications selectively due to budget constraints; then, the rate of declined applications appears low. Thereby, statistics show a grant rate much higher than the reality. A Board of Monitoring and Evaluation that is planned to be established under the UTBA and/or bar associations in the context of the Project is projected to play a significant role in providing accurate and quality statistics on this issue.