NEWS CENTER – Türkiye, especially during the AKP rule, has made prisons with almost every city. Not only adults but also children began to stay in prisons, which increased with the increase in crime rates with the AKP government and the government’s sending everyone it deems oppositional to prison. The government, which made a name for itself with the enemy law it applied to those it saw as its opponents, sent thousands of pregnant or newly born mothers to prisons with their children.
Turkey, especially with the sending of children aged 0-6 to prisons, is a party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, “the principle of observing the best interests of the child”, “the principle of the fundamental right to life of children who are in prison with their mothers”, “the principle of the right of the child and the mother to access health services”, violates the principle of the right to education”, “the principle of the right not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment”, “the principle of the right to play and to participate in cultural activities”, “the principle of the right of the child to obtain information and documents”.
CHILDREN DO NOT GROW HEALTHY
Apart from this, the Turkish state violates the right to respect for family life and the protection of the family, which are protected by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 23 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Turkish state is a party.
The experiences of children who enter prisons with their mothers bring with them a lot of trouble through the development of the child. According to the report published by the Living Rights Association, the most common problems faced by children in prisons are as follows: There is not enough food, no education, no family education, insufficient milk, they witness violations of rights and torture because they stay with adults. There is no privacy, access to health services is very limited, searching for children in the sights hinders their development psychologically, toys are not given, diapers are not given or given little.
Stating that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted on November 20, 1989 and that 196 countries, including Turkey, are parties to this convention, apart from one country in the world, Lawyers for Freedom Istanbul Branch Juvenile Commission member Lawyer Yasemin Soydan said that Turkey violated the convention. He said that the objections to it were not taken into account.
Pointing out that many children are in prison, Yasemin Soydan said: “This shows that the best interests of the child are prioritized over all regulations within international regulations. One of the main aims of the contract is to protect children within the scope of this contract and to prioritize their benefits. However, unfortunately, the importance of this convention is not understood because the importance of this convention is not known among the public and the public opinion and defense system in the field of children’s rights is very weak. Therefore, there is very little demand and insistence under this contract. This causes Turkey, which is a party to the convention, to ignore this important convention regarding children and to violate it too much.
One of these examples is children forced to stay in prison. In fact, in the legal system, there is a necessity to look at the social status of a person in order to arrest and implement similar measures. However, mothers who have to take care of their children are not only unlawfully prosecuted, but also illegally arrested and forced to look after their children in prison. Of course, as per the contract, Turkey should mobilize all its means and possibilities to keep children away from prisons, this should not even be a last resort. But Turkey draws a profile far from even ensuring the basic rights of those in prison, let alone keeping children out of prison. As a matter of fact, according to the contract, when the child is with his mother in prison, as a child and taking this special situation into account, to be fed, to receive attention, has the right to own the playground. However, on the contrary, the child’s diet and shelter are carried out in the same way as an adult, and his development is impaired.
Children grow up as witnesses to the torture and ill-treatment inflicted on detainees and convicts in prison. It is clear that the psychology of a child growing up in this environment is not the same as that of a normal child, that he has been exposed to many traumatic events and his psychology is heavily affected. Therefore, besides his quality of life, we see that he did not grow up like a normal child both physically and mentally and started life one step behind. While children should be protected within the legal system, on the contrary, it is obvious that they are heavily damaged by legal practices. This is in clear violation of both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and fundamental Human Rights and regulations on the subject. Still, there is no significant legal progress in Turkey,
WE DON’T KNOW HOW IT IS A SANCTION
Saying that they could not get satisfactory answers regarding Turkey’s violation of international conventions, Soydan continued as follows: “Children are the group that is held at the forefront in both national and international law and that should be especially sensitive when taking measures against them, the group that is protected by regulations. It is also a necessity to keep the best interest of a child in the system and to apply the law according to this superior interest without any exceptions. However, when we ask what happens when we act contrary to this, what kind of sanction there is, we do not get very satisfactory answers.
In this regard, arrangements have been made in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Child Protection Law. However, defending rights in this direction is both fruitless and as lawyers, we are insufficient in this regard. When we make an application to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, suggestions are made to solve the problem on the basis of cooperation with the states. If the problem is not resolved persistently, what comes into play is not binding as we expected. Only these unlawfulnesses are announced in the committee’s annual reports. In this sense, a binding decision or intervention of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is not on the agenda.
In terms of the ECHR, although it is binding, this is only on the basis of an individual application and result. Even if the ECHR decisions are broad-framed, they do not reach a structural concern for children’s rights in Turkey. These problems can only be overcome by states’ sincere and holistic attention to human rights and their concern for rights. It would not be realistic to expect the semi-judicial mechanisms of the UN or the decisions of the ECtHR to be a deterrent, even when the decisions of the ECtHR are not implemented openly in the current period. What is realistic is to call the state to be a state of law with all its organs and to try to achieve this with all democratic means.”
THEIR GUARDS TAKE ROLE MODELS FOR THEM
Stating that the children did not grow up healthily in prison, Soydan concluded his speech with the following words: “A child who had to grow up in prison cannot be expected to grow up healthy like a normal child. While witnessing torture in the environment in which the child lives, he or she is exposed to torture and ill-treatment. Childhood is a very important stage for children to develop in a healthy way and form their lives in this way. So much so that the traumas experienced by a child are the biggest mental depressions that he cannot forget at any moment of his life, that disturb him at every age and that do not leave him behind. In this way, irreversible damage occurs in the lives of children who had to grow up in prison. Children witness everything in prisons, even torture. The fact that children witness such a practice that even an adult cannot tolerate is a clear example of abuse of the child’s mental and psychological state. A child who had to grow up in prison cannot be expected to grow up healthy like a normal child.
In fact, the child is exposed to torture and ill-treatment while witnessing torture in the environment he lives in. Again, the child’s role models can be guards and principals. He encodes the communication in the dual subordinate relationship between the guards and the prisoners. Of course, it is clearly against the law for him to experience these, because it severely cripples the child’s future. The Convention recognizes the child as a right not to be exposed to any form of violence in Article 19 of the Convention. In a comment made by the UN General Committee on the Convention, it states: ‘No violence against children can be justified; all forms of violence against children can be prevented.’ However, it is clear that there is still no significant step or progress in this regard in Turkey. This progress can only be achieved if Turkey shifts its helm completely to the law.
A children’s rights-based approach to the care and protection of children requires a paradigm shift from an approach that sees children as mere “victims” to an approach that sees them as entitled individuals, respecting and advancing their dignity as human beings and their physical and psychological immunity. The concept of dignity requires that every child be recognized, respected and protected as a rightful person, a unique and valuable person with his/her own personality, distinct needs, interests and private life. However, we see from legal practices that it causes the child to grow up with traumas rather than being respected. We see that Turkey, the state party to international conventions, violates its obligations heavily. However, no matter how many times these violations are brought to the agenda, no action is taken. Children continue to suffer more. Therefore, it is clear that it is necessary to put it on the agenda more, to raise a voice on this issue, and to defend the rights of children more effectively. You have to be persistent about it. Demanding this should be an important agenda of non-governmental organizations and activities that have a voice especially in the field of children’s rights.”
