High Level Meeting of the Global Judicial Integrity Network conducted by the secretariat of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was held on 24-27^th  February 2020 in Doha, the capital of Qatar with the title “Past, Present, Future”.  Our country was represented by the delegation of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors, the members of which are Mr. Yaşar Şimşek, the member of the First Chamber of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors and Mr. Yunus Emre Yumuşakbaş, Rapporteur Judge at the Bureau of Foreign Relations and Project; the delegation of the Court of Cassation presided by Mr. İsmail Rüştü Cirit, the First President of the Court of Cassation; the delegation of the Council of State presided by Mrs. Zerrin Güngör and the delegation of the Constitutional Court presided by Mr. Muammer Topal, the member of the Constitutional Court.

Following the opening speeches and speeches on the achievements of the Network since its establishment, the programme started with the presentation entitled “The Use of Social Media by Judges” and continued with separate working groups. 

Afternoon working groups continued with three sessions, each of which included four separate simultaneous working groups. Mr. Yaşar Şimşek, the member of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors and Mr. Yunus Emre Yumuşakbaş, Rapporteur Judge participated in thematic breakout sessions entitled “Mainstreaming Anti-Corruption at the Top: Transparency and Accountability of the Highest Bodies of the Judiciary”, “Reassessment and Removal of Judges in Constitutional Transitions” and “Judicial Immunity and Due Process in the Determination of Allegations of Judicial Misconduct “.

In the morning of the second day plenary session where presentations entitled “Gender-Related Judicial Integrity Issues” and “The Use of Artificial Intelligence by the Judiciaries” were made was held and in the afternoon of the same day the outcomes of the working groups of the first day were evaluated and recommendations generated as a result of the sessions were shared.  After that, last plenary entitled “Working Together for Judicial Integrity” was held and the floor was given to the General Assembly for closing remarks. Accordingly, Mr. İsmail Rüştü Cirit, the President of the Court of Cassation took the floor and mentioned the importance of realising justice both in national and international arena and in this context he indicated that he supports Doha Declaration that will further develop judicial integrity on a global scale and that for content integrity, in Doha Declaration, it would be beneficial to make reference to Istanbul Declaration that mentioned judicial transparency for the first time and detailed its all aspects.

In the afternoon of the first day, during thematic breakout session of High Level Meeting of the Global Judicial Integrity Network entitled “Mainstreaming Anti-Corruption at the Top: Transparency and Accountability of the Highest Bodies of the Judiciary”, after Mr. Jose Igreja Matos, Judge at Portugese Court of Appeal, the President of European Association of Judges and Vice-President of European Association of Judges who made a presentation as a panellist exhibited a negative attitude towards Türkiye while mentioning positive work they carried out within the framework of the activities of the abovementioned institutions, Mr. Yaşar Şimşek, the member of the First Chamber of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors took the floor and indicated that some corrections about the negative example that the panellist gave should be made and the matter should be clarified. He shared the correct information based on official data and finalised his speech.