ANKARA - Members of the judiciary will be trained to better deal with domestic violence cases under a new program, Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Þahin announced yesterday before answering reporters’ questions about the local elections.

The two-year training project, a joint effort of the Justice Ministry and the state ministry responsible for women and children’s affairs, aims to raise judges’ awareness about violence against women, domestic violence and social gender equality, and to improve their communication skills.

The protocol on the role of members of the judiciary in combating violence against women was signed yesterday in Ankara with the participation of Þahin and State Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs Nimet Çubukçu.

The judges who serve in 164 family courts will initially be provided with training in groups of 25 or 30 people, Çubukçu said.

The United Nations Population Fund will provide technical and financial support to the project.

Þahin said the existing 164 family courts were not sufficient and that Turkey needed 19 more, adding that for judges to be able to serve in the family courts, they must be over the age of 30, married with children and have a master’s degree in family law.

Noting that family courts not only deal with cases of domestic violence but take social, educational and protective measures to solve the problems stemming from it, Þahin said the new training will contribute to the resolution of problems that have occurred during the implementation of the law.

Judges to be trained on domestic violence

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I must say that I am proud of Turkey!

This is great news.  It is also a little sad to know it took so long....better late than never, I guess. 

It´s indeed great news! Continue doing good things like this please, Turkey!

Though..... I still have some questions:

In this sentence

for judges to be able to serve in the family courts, they must be over the age of 30, married with children and have a master’s degree in family law.

are a few things I don´t understand. Over 30? Ok, I can understand people think experience come by the years but some people of 50 are way more ´innocent´ or ´tabula rasa´ then people of 25.

A master´s degree in family law. Yes, that is very necessary.

Being married and have children? Well, the first part surely is from the idea that being not married but single or living together is not good. I do not agree with that idea but ok. But having children is needed? Why? What if you are a great empathic judge but unfortunately you can´t have kids? Does having kids make one automatically a better judge? In that case I remind one that the worst educators were well-known pedagogues!

I totally agree with you here Trudy... This is a very strange requirement!

I think it has a lot to do with social propriety......who they concider to be "pillars of society."  I agree...it´s very strange.  What if you are married but can´t have kids?  Or have kids and are divorce???

 This is great news and ought to be fostered in other countries. 

Reading this, I think Turkey is ahead of the game, after listening to a lecture yesterday on the British legal system by a London Lawyer.............. and how many (not all!) Judges in the UK fit into a certain criteria  

Still.. I think it will be quite a while before this law will produce some substantial results though...