NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS AS A HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION MECHANISM: THE CASES OF THE OMBUDSMAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUALITY INSTITUTION OF TURKEY Article 11(1)(d) of TIHEK Law lists "submitting opinions to judicial bodies, public institutions and organizations and relevant persons regarding its mandate upon request" among the duties and authorities of the Board. This statement reveals that the Board, the decision-making body of the Institution, can only submit an opinion upon request. Therefore, it is not possible for TIHEK to act as an expert before judicial bodies on its own initiative. This issue was also criticized by the ECRI.34 No provision is available regarding conducting awareness-raising activities in the society for promoting diversity and mutual understanding, engaging in activities intended for ensuring that the groups exposed to discrimination have trust in the institution and promoting and supporting positive actions although this issue is also covered in ECRI GPT2. Although the absence of legislation on this issue is not an obstacle to the conduct of such activities, the Institution's activities performed during the first four years show that nearly no activity was conducted regarding these issues. Finally, as for carrying out independent surveys and collecting data on certain subjects, Article 24 of TIHEK Law provides that it is not possible for the Board to collect statistical data to fight against discrimination where necessary. In fact, TIHEK can decide in which areas to collect formal statistics for this purpose only together with the relevant institutions and organizations. The Turkish Statistical Institute is held responsible for the collection of statistical information deemed necessary. As seen, TIHEK Law does not contain any provision on the liabilities of regularly carrying out independent surveys and gathering a sufficient amount of sound quantitative and qualitative data on discrimination as stipulated in para. 1.1.1.(7) of the Recommendation of the European Commission. Practices of the Institution show that no such activity was performed during the first four years. Besides, the Institution does not gather any data in particular on the number of complaints or lawsuits per discrimination ground, the exercise and outcome of administrative and judicial proceedings, either. B- TIHEK's Composition and Guarantees of Independence and Pluralism As examined in detail through separate sections below, the composition of TIHEK seems to be totally incompliant with international standards in terms of the guarantees of independence and pluralism. 1. Composition of TIHEK, Board Members and the Selection Thereof International standards put forth that equality institutions may be established as separate structures while they may also be formed as the part of an ombudsman institution or human rights institutions authorized in multiple respects. Para. 7 of ECRI GPT2 stresses that if the equality institution is established under a structure authorized in multiple respects, the mandate of the relevant institution as an equality institution must be set forth in the legislation in a clear way. TIHEK was constituted to be competent in more than one respect. It is observed that the Institution's powers regarding discrimination as detailed above are clearly indicated in TIHEK Law although there are deficiencies. 34 ECRI, Report on Turkey, Fifth Monitoring Cycle, June 29, 2016, CRI(2016)37, para. 25, http://rm.coe.int/fifth-report-on-turkey/16808b5c81 (accessed: July 31, 2020) 23