RRT and American partner organization Refugee Solidarity Network (RSN) have launched a new report on “Potentials of Pro Bono Partnerships in Turkey for Securing Refugees’ Access to Rights”. The report builds on the two organizations’ joint efforts since 2017 to draw from the US ‘pro bono’ experience with a view to exploring ways in which law firms in Turkey and NGO assistance providers can team up to generate an additional capacity for free legal services to asylum seekers to complement state-funded Legal Aid and NGO legal services.
You can download the report at the Publications section of our website.
RRT, as a leading national refugee law & asylum legal aid stakeholder in Turkey, has been working for many years to advocate for the inclusion of asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants for free legal services offered under Turkey’s state-funded Legal Aid Scheme (Adli Yardım) implemented by provincial bar associations. Since 2015, RRT has joined forces with RSN to strengthen the capacity-building and expertise-support services it provides to lawyers and bar associations around Turkey. Since 2017, RRT and RSN have been exploring the role ‘pro bono partnerships’ can play in the Turkey context in generating an additional capacity for legal services benefitting refugees’ access to rights. Building on RSN’s 2017 initial research report on delivery models in the United States, and the subsequent US study visit the organizations have undertaken in 2018, earlier this year in 2019 RRT -with RSN support- launched and successfully implemented a first-ever “Pilot Pro Bono Partnership Project” with a refugee law focus in Turkey, teaming up with two Istanbul-based law firms: White & Case Turkey and Dündar & Sır.
The present report offers an assessment of the Turkey legal professional context for pro bono practice and legal assistance needs of asylum seekers, and draws from the experience of the aforementioned pilot project to present a series of observations and recommendations regarding potentials and challenges of this type of collaborations in Turkey.
The report was prepared and published in the framework of a project funded by US State Department Population Refugees and Migration (PRM) Bureau. RRT and RSN have plans in place to continue efforts in 2021 to engage both law firms in Turkey and the broader NGO service provider community to promote and support similar partnerships and synergies between law firms and NGOs going forward.