New Partnership Provides Legal Information to Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Posted by ABA ROLI Staff in Turkey
From Left to Right: Zakaria Kallo (ABA ROLI), Sonja Horgen (ABA ROLI), Ms.Hilal Celik (ABA RC),  Mr. Onur Gelbal (ABA RC), Ms.Ceylan Tanriverdi (Director of Ankara Bar RC), Derya Saglam (Turkish Red Crescent), Ece Ulu (ABA ROLI), H.Burak Suyolcu (ABA RC).
From Left to Right: Zakaria Kallo (ABA ROLI), Sonja Horgen (ABA ROLI), Ms.Hilal Celik (ABA RC),  Mr. Onur Gelbal (ABA RC), Ms.Ceylan Tanriverdi (Director of Ankara Bar RC), Derya Saglam (Turkish Red Crescent), Ece Ulu (ABA ROLI), H.Burak Suyolcu (ABA RC). 
Since 2011, Turkey has seen an influx of refugees fleeing into the country due to the onset of the Syrian Civil War. As of September 2017, the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) recorded more than 3.1 million registered Syrian refugees living in Turkey, and countless others living unregistered. In cooperation with the country’s bar associations, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) — since September 2014 — has engaged with Turkish attorneys to train them on special techniques to deliver legal information to Syrian refugees, including the most vulnerable, such as women and youth.

ABA ROLI’s legal awareness program works in partnership with the national and local Turkish bar associations to train attorneys on the different regulations impacting the rights and obligations of Syrian refugees living in Turkey. Through this program, ABA ROLI’s text messaging legal helpline, animated videos, posters, and brochures are also helping to raise legal awareness among Syrian refugee communities across the country.

In its effort to address the critical protection needs of the Syrian refugee community, ABA ROLI’s trained network of more than 200 Turkish lawyers have delivered legal awareness information to over 200,000 urban refugees throughout Turkey, on topics such as citizenship, family law, legal documentation, and labor rights.

Ms.Ceylan Tanriverdi (Director of Ankara Bar RC) delivers legal information pertaining to education in Turkey, with Zakaria Kallo (ABA ROLI) as her translator.
Ms.Ceylan Tanriverdi (Director of Ankara Bar RC) delivers legal information pertaining to education in Turkey, with Zakaria Kallo (ABA ROLI) as her translator.

To help serve Syrian communities, ABA ROLI’s newest partner, the Turkish Red Crescent — a nonprofit social service organization — operates 10 community centers across Turkey, by providing Turkish language classes, vocational courses (particularly for women), a network of psychological support, and a variety of programs that support the ability of its beneficiaries to live more independently. Five more centers are scheduled to open by the end of 2017.
September — under the guidance of ABA ROLI — marked the first time the Turkish Red Crescent officially partnered with a local Turkish bar association. The Ankara Bar Association and the Turkish Red Crescent delivered a legal information session to community center beneficiaries.

The session focused on providing legal information to Syrian refugees living in Turkey. Ankara Bar Attorney, Ceylan Tanriverdi spoke specifically about how children, both under temporary protection and those not under temporary protection can register in the public school system. Tanriverdi included information on how students with disabilities can access education. Tanriverdi also spoke about how students can register in the universities along with the proper requisite paper work and identification. At the end of the session, Tanriverdi took questions from the participants, which included questions relating to challenges experienced registering children from the same family in the same school, when schools deny student registration due to capacity issues. Participants also asked the attorney how they could voice their concern about poor conditions in their children’s classroom, where the students are grouped in different age groups in room with inadequate or poor conditions.

ABA ROLI hopes that this new partnership will usher in greater cooperation between the nongovernmental organization (NGO) community and the bar association, thereby contributing to longer-term sustainability of legal information services and provision to the Syrian population living in Turkey.

To learn more about our work in Turkey, please contact the ABA Rule of Law Initiative at rol@americanbar.org

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