Financed by the European Union, the Republic of Türkiye and the Council of Europe and carried out by the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors of Türkiye (HCJP), the launching event of “The Project on Strengthening Judicial Ethics in Türkiye” was held on 4 May 2016 in Sheraton Hotel, Ankara, with the participation of Mr. Bekir Bozdağ, the Minister of Justice and the President of the HCJP.

Within the scope of the Project that will last 24 months and has a budget of 3.711.000 Euros, it is planned to carry out activities aiming at analysing the current status in the field of judicial ethics, establishing ethics codes for judges and prosecutors, increasing the awareness of judges and prosecutors and the public towards judicial ethics and improving the capacity of the HCJP to implement ethics codes.

In the event, the keynote speech regarding the introduction of this project given by Mr. Bilgin Başaran, the Secretary General of the HCJP, who is a Senior Project Officer (SPO) in this project, was followed respectively by the opening remarks of Mrs. Emine Döğer, Acting Head of Central Finance and Contracts Unit, Ms. Verena Taylor, Director at the Office of the Directorate General of Programmes of the Council of Europe, Mr. Hansjörg Haber (Ambassador), the President of the Türkiye Delegation of the Council of Europe, and Mr. Bekir Bozdağ, the Minister of Justice and the President of the HCJP.

The opening event was attended by approximately 300 guests and it was concluded after lunch.

In the afternoon, the 1st Steering Committee Meeting was held with the participation of officials from all the stakeholders of the Project, including High Courts, the Ministry of Justice, the Turkish Bar Association and relevant NGOs, and officials from the Justice Academy of Türkiye, the co-beneficiary of the Project; and activities to be carried out in the following period within the scope of the project were planned.