Children’s Rights Commissions 2001–2005

Objective

The project aims to enhance the role of practising lawyers in the field of child rights through the organised framework of bar associations.

Since Bar Commissions for Children’s Rights already exist in eight provinces, the target is to develop new commissions and share information on child rights with new participants.

Preparation

The first step was to identify interested professionals whose bar associations are as yet not active in the field of child rights. To begin with, lawyers already active in child rights met with presidents and board members of bars in order to explain the project and identify potential participants in project provinces. Potential participants were subsequently contacted regarding their interest in taking part in the project -- including the creation of commissions for child rights.

The next step was a one-day meeting with those who were committed to the project in order to disseminate information and assess need in the starting phase.

Needs Assessment

There were two important reasons for needs assessment:

The first was to ensure that participants had some background prior to training since levels of experience in this regard varied between project provinces. Training would cover professionals who are well-versed in child rights as well as comparative new-comers to the field and without preparatory work the involvement of participants would fall below expectations. Potential difficulties regarding content of the training programme also had to be addressed since certain aspects required balance in order to avoid repetition for experienced participants and excessive complexity for new-comers.

The second reason for needs-assessment concerned the high expectations from training, the large number of participants and limitations on time. Working with these factors, essential reservations such as why we are here? or should we follow this path instead? were as far as possible eliminated so that fundamental questions regarding the objective, structure and timing were clarified in advance, ensuring maximum focus on the target of the training programme.

By the same token, needs assessment work was conducted in small groups where participants were able to forward questions and make their respective needs and concerns explicit, ensuring that both the project and the programme itself were thoroughly examined by each individual. As a result, some changes were made to the programme. After responding to structural needs, discussion of content began with the aim of enhancing target focus. Participants were asked to identify problems from their respective provinces and provide what they considered to be the most appropriate solution. After discussing these problems and the potential solutions, institutions such as juvenile courts, child police, centres for street children and rehabilitation centres were visited in the respective provinces where training was under way.

The final step was the distribution of training materials to the participants. These included books, texts of relevant legislation and notes prepared especially for each session.

Completing needs assessment was the most crucial step in the project -- with a limited number of participants, the one-day meeting was a good opportunity for everyone to get acquainted as well as to learn about the issue of child rights and the project. The commitment of all participants was apparent owing to the focus on a common target and this factor subsequently proved to be a foundation for the high quality of the training.

Training

Training took place in August 2003 and had more than one target. More specifically, targets included the sharing of information on child rights, exchange of information and experience by bar associations and information-building on issues of voluntary action and organisational structure. Besides these targets, the need to assess the possible role of bar associations in the field of child rights and produce a corresponding work plan was vital to the project overall. To this end, a five-day training seminar using a variety of methods to exploit time efficiently and also maintain a fresh approach to the subject was planned to cover all these issues.

Because some participants had a distance to travel, the initial session discussing the outcome of needs assessment started late in the afternoon of the first day. This first session involved the sharing of work of four groups from different provinces. Panels outside the training hall gave bar associations the opportunity to introduce their respective activities, facilitating the sharing of experience and information during breaks. To save time, personal introduction of the sixty participants was left to the spontaneity of breaks and mealtimes and seating at lunch and dinner was deliberately arranged so as to mingle participants from different provinces.

For two days, daytime sessions were devoted to presentations on various aspects of child rights. Diversity of professional status (such as judges, lawyers, academicians, and so forth) was considered in the selection of trainers in order to help participants form a clear idea about which experts would be best suited to offer advice and assistance. A ninety-minute discussion followed dinner where participants examined the role of bar associations and lawyers in the light of issues addressed during the daytime sessions. Minutes of these discussions were subsequently distributed to participants.

Throughout training, efforts were made to strike a balance between the techniques of group work and lecturing. Various combinations of groups were arranged in advance so as to bring participants from different regions and provinces together on specific topics of training.

One session offering information on governmental organisations and their authorities was organised in the form of a panel discussion. This session had the reciprocal advantage of informing official authorities about the project and activities carried out by bar associations.

A day was reserved for issues relating to communication and voluntary action. Sessions on this day were designed to form a general idea about potential problems and courses of action to be taken in the creation voluntary organisations.

On the final day, participants were asked to identify priorities and develop a work plan for their respective provinces.

There were discussions on communication among commissions and the basic premises of cooperation. Representatives were assigned to follow-up ongoing work on the work plans of provinces, facilitate communication, identify need and report to the project manager.

Monitoring

Following training, provinces prepared evaluation reports and submitted these to regional representatives in September, October and November. After conducting their own evaluation, regional representatives delivered the reports to the project manager. It should be noted that at this stage regional representatives were not very functional in terms of needs assessment, communication and coordination.

Following training, an e-group was launched on the Internet. Although this initiative did not ensure full and exhaustive communication by itself, it proved functional in discussing various issues, provoking suggestions and maintaining high motivation.

During this phase, it was discovered that both established and new commissions were facing some difficulties over such issues as organisational models and voluntary action and communication problems were affecting ongoing work. It was thus decided that these difficulties should be the main theme of the planned project evaluation meeting. The agenda of this evaluation meeting was finalised following group network discussions on the Internet.

Evaluation Meeting

The evaluation meeting was organised to allow bar associations the opportunity to introduce activities launched after training and to build experience which might be useful in overcoming current problems. The evaluation meeting was also considered to be a useful opportunity to introduce changes in legislation and enforcement as well as to determine the model of linking and communication between commissions -- an issue which had been discussed during the training programme.

The meeting began with a presentation of activity reports by bar associations. Reports were displayed on panels in the lobby and materials prepared by provinces were distributed. The following two days were devoted to discussions and training on communication, organisation, organisational roles and task sharing. Parallel sessions in the evenings introduced changes and innovations in legislation and enforcement.

The last day of the meeting was reserved for the finalisation of work plans and identification of principles governing the relationships and communication between commissions. The scheduling of this element for the last day proved to be unfortunate since some participants were under pressure to leave immediately. Although the early departure of participants did not entirely obstruct the meeting, it affected the objectives and so, to retrieve the situation, a new schedule was made with participants and the programme has been reshaped accordingly.

In this light, future activities of this nature should pay attention to the point of timing -- allowing an interval between closure of work and departure hours. Neither should any session be scheduled immediately on arrival since many participants will have travelled long distances by bus. In such cases, it would be much better to begin with a light opening session or even to start on the next day.

After the Evaluation Meeting

Some important decisions taken during the evaluation meeting took effect immediately. The first of these was the formation of a website and the opening of the e-group to all bar association members who are active in the field of child rights. The new e-group enlisted members from all Bar Commissions for Children’s Rights. The site can be used to access records pertaining to training and evaluation meetings as well as regional reports and information about individual commissions. The site also has information to guide visitors on legislation currently in effect and there is also a ‘frequently asked questions’ section in relation to legislation. Oğun Kayacan manages the site on behalf of the Bar Association of İzmir Children’s Rights Commission.

During the meeting it was also decided that each bar association would promote the creation of a child rights commission in another bar association. Upon the creation of child rights commissions in the Bar Associations of Balıkesir and Malatya, the number of commissions has risen to twenty-two. Negotiations are under way with contacts in the bar associations of Edirne, Tekirdağ and Denizli.

The first regional meeting was held in Aydın with the participation of bar members from Aydın, İzmir and Manisa.

Another decision taken at the evaluation meetings was the formation of an organisation model to maintain contacts and cooperation among commissions. Nine representatives were designated to work in this field and communicate with the Bar Association of Turkey.

The Children’s Rights Commission website is hosted online at the İzmir Bar Association web site. The Commission can be contacted by email.

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