Within the scope of “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of the Court of Cassation” jointly carried out by the Court of Cassation and the Council of Europe, the international symposium on “Impartiality of Judges and Use of Social Media” was held online on 28 May 2021.

At the international symposium held with the participation of the President of the Court of Cassation Mr. Mehmet AKARCA, the issue of the judges’ use of social media was discussed in terms of the prestige of the courts, the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judicial system.

In his speech, Mr. AKARCA stated that the use of social media, which has become an important part of social life today,on the one hand offers important opportunities for judges to better understand the society they serve due to the wide variety of accessibility, on the other hand it contains the risks of damaging the public’s trust in the independence, impartiality and integrity of the courts.

Emphasizing the importance of the need for ethical rules, guides and trainings for judges in order to use social media in full consistency with the standards of codes of conduct, Mr. AKARCA stated that while developing a judicial codes of conduct system with the highest standards of the United Nations and the Council of Europe in 2017, the Court of Cassation is one of the leading judicial institutions in the world that regulates this issue in its ethical principles. 

The aim of the symposium is to update and enrich the knowledge about the impartiality of the judges and the use of social media.

The event, which was planned to be held in two sessions, was attended by the heads of chambers of the Court of Cassation, members, rapporteur judges and public prosecutors of the Court of Cassation,   Head of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara Cristian URSE, European Court of Human Rights National Judge of Türkiye Assoc. Prof. Dr. Saadet YÜKSEL, the Coordinator of the UN-sponsored Judicial Integrity Group Nihal JAYAWICKRAMA, Chief Justice of the Nigerian State of Borno, Chairman of the Information Technology Policy Committee of the National Judicial Council, and Member of the Advisory of Board of the Global Network for Integrity in the Judiciary Kashim ZANNAH, and Member of the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee of the Court of Cassation Prof. Dr. Gülriz UYGUR and expert lawyers from the European Court of Human Rights.