NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS AS A HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION MECHANISM: THE CASES OF THE OMBUDSMAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUALITY INSTITUTION OF TURKEY which are state secrets or trade secrets may not be submitted to the Institution by the highest ranking post or board of the competent authorities by providing justifications for such refusal. However, such information or documents which are state secrets may be examined on site by the Chief Ombudsman or an ombudsman assigned by the Chief Ombudsman. There is no provision on how this information, which is a state secret and reviewed by an ombudsman/the Chief Ombudsman, will be used in the decision. Article 19 of the Law states that the Institution can consult an expert and hear witnesses. It may be important to resort to this method of proof in order to eliminate the problems that may be caused by the inability to hear witnesses in the administrative judiciary. The Institution may protect human rights more effectively by cooperating with the civil society, and consulting civil society organizations when making decisions may make a significant contribution to the decisions of the Institution. An example of this is the request for an opinion from the Social Rights and Research Association in the application made for achondroplasia to be included in the Disability Ratio Schedule.8 The recommendation made in line with the opinion of the Association is important in terms of definition of persons with disabilities in Turkey. Similarly, in the application for taking measures for stray animals, the Animal Protection Association and the Association for Keeping Stray Animals were consulted.9 On the other hand, these two examples are decisions accessed outside of the database, and no such decision was found in the decisions published in the database. Considering that the decisions in the information bank are more recent, it can be said that this method has not been used recently. In fact, consulting relevant qualified organizations adopting a pluralist approach may support the investigations of the Institution, strengthen the cooperation between the Institution and civil society organizations, make the decisions more legitimate, and pave the way for more qualified applications. Similarly, although the practice of amicus curiae (court-friendly - opinion submitted to the court by third parties), which is a common practice in the world, has not yet been implemented, such opinions of human rights organizations may be extremely important in terms of institutional culture. The Institution can also issue special reports and make on-site inspections. Until now, the Institution has prepared five special reports: 1. Occupational Health and Safety Special Report based on the Soma Mining Accident, 2. Special Report on Problems, Improvement and Increasing Reliability of Our Justice System, 3. Special Report on Violations of Rights in Delivery of Children, and Alimony 4. Syrians in Turkey 5. Turkey’s Fight Against Covid-19 Pandemic These reports are not sufficient quantitatively in our country, where human rights violations are very common, and go beyond the limits of this study, but these reports are important that need to be discussed in terms of their criticality and capacity to have a transformative effect on the administration. For example, in the last report, which is the coronavirus report, despite the fact that the legislation on fighting a pandemic is very old and there are serious legal problems regarding administrative decisions and sanc8 9 2016/2600, 24.4.2017. 2018/9733, 29.1.2019. 63