NEW JUDICIAL REFORM STRATEGY IN TURKEY-MAIN AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Abstract

The Judicial Reform Strategy Document, which will form the new roadmap of the Turkish judiciary, was announced to the public with a ceremony held at Beştepe Millet Congress and Culture Centre. The strategy, which aims to strengthen the independent, impartial, accountable and transparent nature of the judiciary, to increase citizens’ confidence in justice and to facilitate access to services, includes 9 targets, 63 objectives and 256 activities. President Erdoğan explained the 2023 vision and the regulations prepared by considering the case-law of EU, European Commission, Venice Commission and ECHR and declared that the Reform’s targets will protect and improve the rights and freedoms, judicial independence, objectivity and transparency both the quality and quantity of human resources and make justice more approachable. The issue of the Turkey’s Judicial Reform Strategy is very important because the Document adopts the development of a human-oriented approach to service, protection and strengthening of rights and freedoms, ensuring the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, facilitating access to justice services, observing the right to a fair trial and increasing trust in the judiciary and it will ensure a trustworthy and accessible justice system in line with the EU accession process and. The nine targets prepared by the Justice Ministry for the period of 2019-2023, the reform strategy envisions a «trust ensuring, approachable justice system». The author believes it is important to write about the two Basic Perspectives of the Reform Strategy which are as follows: 1. Basic Perspective on Rights and Freedoms: The Judicial Reform Strategy Document strongly emphasizes the strengthening of democracy, the development and expansion of rights and freedoms. The document introduces approaches to strengthen freedom of expression and new policies to actualise this will. Within this scope, new policies were determined with a broad