Directorate of Urban Justice and Equality

Enabling the development and spread of the culture of living together in İzmir requires the struggle against social injustice and discrimination. With this awareness, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality works for a better future where there is no social injustice and discrimination in the city.

An important step taken in this context was to establish the Directorate of Urban Justice and Equality. The establishment aims of the Directorate are to fight against all kinds of discrimination in İzmir, to ensure equal access to public services for everyone, especially vulnerable groups, and to support a culture of coexistence and peace. The Directorate undertakes the responsibilities of carrying out field studies, training studies and projects, which have the dimensions of building capacity, raising awareness and ensuring accessibility.

Projects;

• The Refugee Desk was established in September 2020, in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) under the Directorate of Urban Justice and Equality, in order to increase the equal access of refugees to the services offered by İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and to increase equal opportunities.
• A Welcome to İzmir Guide has been prepared in 6 languages that can be used by refugees living in İzmir and foreigners who have just come to our city.
• An Information Booklet for Refugees has been created for the Employees of the Municipality, which will be used by the employees of the municipality, especially the personnel of the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, while providing services to the refugees.
• The Legal Aid Vehicle for Justice Project has been implemented in order to provide direct and free legal support to access to justice for our citizens who do not have financial means, and live in areas far from the city center, where social injustice is seen intensely.
• ALL TOGETHER 2 Project; It is a board game project that aims to raise awareness about different types of discrimination, to support social cohesion and coexistence, and to become sensitive to the intersection of discrimination types and their problems. It has been prepared in cooperation with FUMA Fachstelle Gender & Diversitat NRW, Anadolu Kültür, Institut DINX, Bir-İZ Association and with the support of Stiftung Mercator.
• “Project to Raise Awareness on Child Trafficking and/or Human Trafficking for the Purpose of Labor Exploitation in Turkey” regarding raising awareness on human trafficking in order to combat child trafficking and labor exploitation is continued to be carried out in cooperation with (SGDD-ASAM) and in partnership with the European Union and the Council of Europe.
• Studies are carried out on the 'Urban Gardening and Ecological Literacy Project' within the scope of the training program opened by Lund University in Sweden named "Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Public Spaces and Services (CIPSS) 2021", which aims to ensure social justice and equality by facilitating the targeted disadvantaged groups and citizens to benefit from municipal services with the help of digital tools.
• Hemşehri İletişim Merkezi: HİM (Citizens' Communication Center), which is a communications center, where people living in and visiting İzmir can get information regarding accessing municipal services and how to apply for these services and where they can apply for certain services and convey their complaints about the problems in the city, has been established within the body of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality. The "HİM Multilingual Service Project" has been implemented in cooperation with UNHCR in order to facilitate the service of the Hemşehri İletişim Merkezi (HİM) for foreigners and refugees living in İzmir with multilingual response and face-to-face meeting services in Arabic and English.
• Our directorate has played a facilitating role in the “Project for Increasing Access of Disabled Refugees to Protection Services”, in which services such as psychosocial support, guidance and case management for refugees with disabilities are provided in partnership with the Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
• To learn about the life experiences of vulnerable groups in İzmir, and the difficulties they face in daily life and in access to urban services, and in order to take action in this context, “There is Voice in the Neighborhood!” project is carried out.
• Within the scope of the MATRA program, support was provided to the “Equal Opportunity for Roma Girls and Women” project of the Roma Education, Folklore and Sports Club association and the “Onsite Approach to Local” project carried out by ROMGEDER and İZ-ROM.

Trainings

• “Human Rights and Rights-Based Work Training”, “Youth Rights Training”, “Fight agaisnt Discrimination Training” modules lasting 5 days in May, June and July for 35 NGO representatives from different provinces of Turkey, which are components of the Local Youth Associations Network, have been applied.
• Within the scope of İzmir Youth Workshop, a workshop with the theme of “Cultural Diversity, Inequalities and Migration” was implemented for a group of 15 participants.
• In order to ensure equal access to urban services, the “Basic Concepts in the Area of Asylum and Migration and False Facts” training program was implemented for municipal personnel working one-on-one with refugee groups.
• Capacity building trainings such as “Human Rights”, “Discrimination and Hate Speech” and “Training on Fighting Against Forced Child Marriages” were given to public employees in the field of fighting against discrimination.