Mother Tongue Problem in Childrens Rights

The Convention on the Rights of Children was passed by the General Board of the United Nations (UN) on November 20, 1989. Turkey signed the conventions with reservations on 1990 but the convention went into effect only after five years.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is concerned by the fact that Turkey accepted articles 17, 29 and 30 with reservations and believes that children belonging to the minority groups set out by the Lausanne agreement, and Kurdish children may be negatively affected by Turkey's reservations.

With these reservations, Turkey rejects to;

"encourage mass communication media to pay special care and attention to the language needs of children belonging to minority groups or local communities,"

"improve the child's respect to his/her parents, cultural identity, language and values, the national values of his/her country of origin, and to civilizations other than his/her own,"

"not deprive a child belonging to a racial, religious or language minority group or local community of the opportunity to take advantage of his/her own culture together with other members of his/her community, of the right to believe in and practice his/her own religion, and to use his/her own language."

Prof. Polat said that the New Turkish Penal Code (TCK) still embraces the idea of punishing children instead of rehabilitating them and added that this mentality was against the Convention on the Rights of Children.

Polat spoke to bianet about the main problems about children's rights in Turkey. According to Polat, setting up a parliamentary committee about children who work on the streets, is a positive development, but by no means adequate.

"This commission should have been a "children's rights commission,'" said Polat. "It should have had a more comprehensive approach and evaluate children's rights as a whole."

According to Polat, the Social Services and Children Protection Board (SHECEK) cannot carry the weight that's on its shoulders anymore. On the one hand, it is not able to train enough experts, and on the other hand, appointments with a political agenda has blocked the functioning of the board.

"Two issues, drugs and child pornography, which are not taken very seriously at the moment, will grow to become major issues in the future," said Polat.

1999 National report and shortcomings

The following are shortcomings according to the evaluation of a report Turkey handed to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 1999:

"There are shortcomings under the titles of; respecting the views of the child, the higher interest of the child, the child's right to live in connection with honor crimes, the registering of births, the child's freedom of opinion and right to form associations, the child's right to not undergo torture or other inhumane behavior, family setting and alternative care, handicapped children, health and health services, displaced children, economic exploitation, children who live on the streets, and child justice system."

The committee thinks that Turkey's cooperation with UNICEF to encourage girls to go to school, its approval of the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO), campaign to recognize the Convention on the Rights of Children and allowing non-governmental organizations to participate in the preparation of the report, are positive.

The committee also;

* demands that the differences in detaining children before the trial is

overcome,

* wants that there is adequate coordination between the local administrations in the South East, volunteering sectors, and the central administration, in monitoring the implementation of the UN Convention, and proposes that necessary resources are put to use,

* more resources should be allocated from the budged for children, resources should be put to use for needy children,

* an independent mechanism should be set up to accept complaints of children whose rights were violated,

* the State Institute of Statistics (DIE) should gather orderly data in

related fields so that these data can be utilized in determining necessary

policies,

* effort should be spent so that the requirements of the UN Convention is expanded to rural areas, there should be cooperation with non-governmental organizations, the convention should be included in the school curriculum and those who work with children should be trained.

Turkey has still not handed the UN the national report due 2002.(EU/EA/YE)