Photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ
• The supremacy of law will be the overriding principle of our administration. The financial and administrative independence of judges will be ensured. The practice of treating judges and prosecutors as employees of the Ministry of Justice will be ended.
• All other practices that subjugate members of the judiciary to the government bureaucracy will be ended.
• All vestiges of the 12th September coup that still linger in our practices and institutions will be discarded.
• We will invest into the infrastructure to hasten judicial processes, as well launch a separate branch of the police force to report to the prosecutors.
• Law school curricula will be modernized, with new focus on applied case laws.
• Subjective and politically motivated criteria used in appointing prosecutors and judges will be abolished.
• The influence of the Ministry on competitive exams to enter the profession will be ended.
• The structure and authority of the Constitutional Court will be revised to bolster its role as an indispensable actor in the system of political checks and balances. Justices will be elected by a qualified majority in the parliament.
• The scope and authority of the military tribunals will be further narrowed.
• The Extraordinary Felony Courts that replaced State Security courts will be abolished.
• The HCJP will be abolished to be replaced by a High Commission of Judges, where the Minister of Justice shall not be represented. We shall provide for fair and free election of judges and prosecutors to the new body.
• The State Forensics Agency will be purged of political influence and reformed to provide effective, high-quality and impartial service.
• We will support formation of voluntary and professional organizations by judges and prosecutors.
• The practice of ignoring or circumventing court decisions will be ended.
• More resources will be dedicated to the judiciary, to improve human quality, efficiency and physical conditions.
• The penal system will be reformed to increase respect for human dignity.
