AKP and CHP Promise Change in Terrorism Law for Children

In order to draw attention to the plight of many children on trial for taking part in protests at different dates, a delegation of human rights activists came from Diyarbakır to Ankara to talk to MPs.

2008 has yielded 500 more child defendants 

The delegation spoke with pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) MP Gültan Kışanak. She said in a press briefing that they were trying to prevent children from taking part in protests, but that the reasons behind their participation had to be studied.

Muharrem Erbey, the president of Diyarbakır’s Human Rights Association (IHD), said that around 500 children aged between 12 and 17 are on trial for events that happened in 2008 alone.

He demanded that special children’s police should deal with children at mass protests, that the children be taken to a children’s prosecutor immediately, and that the investigation files be studied by lawyers.

Parties have promised amendments

Arif Akkaya represented the relatives of arrested children in the delegation. He told bianet that politicians from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), as well as Cevdet Erdöl from the Parliamentary Committee on Family, Work and Social Work, had met the demands positively. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) declined to meet the delegation.

Akkaya said that party representatives had promised to propose amendments to the current Anti-Terrorism Law after the local elections of 29 March.

Prior changes in law have affected children

In 2006, changes made in the Anti-Terrorism Law meant that 15- to 18-year-olds could be tried as adults for terrorism crimes. Human rights activists have pointed out that this amendment was made after protests took place in Kurdish-majority Diyarbakır in the southeast of Turkey.

A precedent was set in the same year when the Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that participation in protests was sufficient proof for membership of a terrorist ganisation (i.e. the PKK); this led to many children being tried and facing heavy prison sentences.

Justice and rights for children

This year, too, protests on the 10th anniversary of the arrest of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan on 15 February led to more than 100 children being detained.

In 2006 and 2007, 1,572 children were put on trial for alleged terrorism crimes under the Anti-Terrorism Law or the Turkish Penal Code; 174 children were sentenced, 92 of them in Diyarbakır.

Rights activists have argued that imprisoned children are deprived of education and many other rights. They have demanded changes in the Anti-Terrorism Law, as well as trials appropiate to the children’s age. In Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Diyarbakır, activists have organised into an Initiative for Justice for Children.

Other members of the delegation were: Esat Aktaş, vice-president of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, Saher Akçınar Bayar, the branch president of Diyarbakır’s Association for Human Rights and Solidarity with the Oppressed (MAZLUMDER) and Dr. Cengiz Günay of Diyarbakır’s Chamber of Physicians. (EÜ/AG)