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THE OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TÜRKİYE

penitentiary institutions, right to petition and right to information, right to vote and
stand for election, civil rights, right to travel, freedom of assembly and association,
freedoms of thought, religion and conscience and prohibition of torture and ill-
treatment.

Evaluation of Acts, Actions and Practices Carried Out in Penal Institutions in
Terms of Fundamental Human Rights Principles

Persons duly deprived of their liberty by the authorities are persons whose connections
with the outside world have been removed/restricted, who are at the greatest risk
of violation of rights, who are more vulnerable than others and who are completely
dependent on the relevant authorities for their basic needs. Ensuring and protecting the
fundamental rights and freedoms of these persons is entirely under the responsibility of
the public administration.

Mistakes which may arise from the practices in penal detention and execution houses
and in places where law enforcement procedures are carried out are shortcomings which
can have consequences on the bodies of the persons and lead to irreparable violations of
rights unlike other ordinary mistakes of public authorities. For this reason, it is of great
importance to closely monitor the practices in these places in our country as in every
country. Still, considering this importance, the issue of inspecting whether the acts,
actions and practices of public officers responsible for the places where prisoners and
convicts deprived of their liberty accommodated are carried out in accordance with the
rules of law is not only within the scope of the authority, duty and responsibility of the
judicial authorities; but also and especially, it is among the sensitive actions that require
the close supervision of administrative authorities in the context of preventive measures.
When we look at the issue at the point of operation of penal institutions, in recent
years, significant progress has been made in order to transform the penal execution
system in our country into a modern operation; in accordance with these improvement
steps, especially under the provision of Article 6 of the Law No. 5275 on the Execution
of Penalties and Security Measures, titled “Principles to be observed in the execution
of prison sentences”, sincere steps are outstanding, which were taken for improvement
of the execution of deprivation of liberty, which is imposed by the penalty binding
freedom, under material and moral conditions which ensure the protection of respect
for human dignity, for making the operation of the execution regime more open to
inspection, and for ensuring that prisoners and convicts live in accordance with their
religious beliefs and their moral development.

As a result of our country being large in terms of population and geography, one of the
fundamental priorities of our Institution is to examine and inspect the penal execution
system of our country, which has a large scale in terms of buildings, personnel, convicts/
prisoners, and so forth, and related acts and actions more efficiently.

2020 ANNUAL REPORT 83