‘1,941 arrested, convicted children in Turkey with their rights, needs disregarded’

* Photo: Ankara Medical Chamber

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The Ankara Medical Chamber (ATO) Human Rights Commission held a press conference to raise concerns about the situation of child arrestees and convicts in Turkey's prisons yesterday (January 6).

The conference was attended by ATO Executive Board Chair Dr. Ali Karakoç, Executive Board member Dr. Ayşe Uğurlu, Human Rights Commission members Dr. Korel Yalman and Dr. Nihat Bulut and Human Rights Association (İHD) Executive Board member Nuray Çevirmen.

NOTE: According to the İHD, there are 1,605 ill prisoners in Turkey and 604 of them are severely ill. Since the beginning of 2020, at least 59 ill prisoners, seven shortly after the execution of their prison sentences was deferred, have lost their lives in the country.

'Ill prisoners must be prioritized'

Taking the floor before the statement was read out, ATO Executive Board Chair Dr. Ali Karakoç said that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are planning to amend the law on criminal execution due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Dr. Karakoç noted that if such an amendment is to be introduced, ill arrestees and convicts in risk groups must be prioritized.

Emphasizing that the reports issued by committees of independent physicians to defer the execution of ill prisoners' sentences are not accepted by courts, he recalled that seriously ill prisoners are held in prisons for this reason. "I would like to insistently stress that seven prisoners have lost their lives over the past month and there are over 600 severely ill people in prisons," said Dr. Karakoç and left the floor to ATO's Ayşe Uğurlu.

'Rights and needs of children not observed'

Reading out the press statement, ATO Executive Board member Dr. Ayşe Uğurlu said that prisons do not suit the nature of being a child or child development. According to the information shared by Dr. Uğurlu, as of December 31, 2021, there are 1,941 arrested or convicted children in Turkey while the prison sentences of 566 convicted children are being executed outside prisons due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Uğurlu noted that there are several arrangements that are made without observing the rights and needs of children in the criminal execution system, adding that children are arrested without carrying out sufficient risk and need analysis or taking effective measures.

'Pandemic measures lead to isolation'

Dr. Ayşe Uğurlu also raised concerns that the activities to be held in shared spaces in prisons have been cancelled, referrals and transfers to hospitals or other prisons have been halted except for emergencies and the socio-cultural activities organized by civil society organizations and student's clubs have been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Uğurlu stressed that this state of closure has led to the emergence of isolation conditions in prisons. Underlining that the conditions that push children to crime must be improved first, she said that "imprisonment must not be a practice to turn to when children are concerned."

Social isolation and disciplinary punishments

Further in the statement, Dr. Ayşe Uğurlu noted that children are subjected to a secondary punishment as a result of poor physical conditions, social isolation and disciplinary punishments in prison.

Uğurlu raised concerns about a series of factors in prisons such involuntary transfers, lack of psychologists, lack of interpreters for foreign nationals, absence of a separate funding for children's needs, disciplinary punishments, strip search, workers' wards in need of inquiries and peer violence as well as the violence and sexual abuse against child prisoners by wardens.

Concluding the statement, Uğurlu also listed a series of steps to be taken in the short-term, namely the improvement of prison conditions and the steps that will reduce the effect of isolation and to protect children's physical and mental health in a holistic manner.

"Children cannot be in prisons," she said, reiterating that the conditions pushing children to crime must be improved. (AS/SD)