‘Right to life of 613 children violated in Turkey in 2020’

* Photo: csgorselarsiv.org/Hale Güzin Kızılaslan

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The Migration and Humanitarian Aid Foundation has released its "2020 Internet Media Monitoring Report on Children's Rights Violations."

According to the report based on the news reported in the press, the right to life of 613 children was violated in Turkey in 2020.

While 1,860 children were abused last year, 72 children were subjected to torture and 19 children committed suicide.

'Difficult to access statistics'

The report of the foundation has underlined that it is impossible to access proper statistics about children in Turkey, noting that it is difficult to identify the reasons behind the children's rights violations in the country. The report has shared the following information in brief:

The right to life of 613 children was violated in 2020. 

690 children were injured and the right to protection of 2,156 children was violated in Turkey in a year.

Eight children were subjected to sexual exploitation, 65 children were subjected to violence and 1,860 children were neglected and abused.

19 children committed suicide.

128 children were detained and 19 children were arrested. 72 children were subjected to torture and ill treatment.

44 children were deprived of their right to healthcare and 360 children of their right to access education.

Of the children subjected to rights violations in Turkey in 2020, 158 were from Syria and 10 were from Afghanistan.

Requests and recommendations

Against this backdrop, the foundation has also listed a series of requests and recommendations from the authorities.

Noting that the Constitution and laws of Turkey must be made compatible with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the foundation has also stressed the importance of conducting wide-scale research into the violence against children and children's suicides, thereby introducing effective mechanisms that will prevent such incidents.

"Children must be made visible in the statistics of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). Statistics must be collected in such a way that the data as to the 0-18 age group must be seen clearly in terms of their methods and age ranges," the foundation has said.

Raising concerns about early and forced marriages of children in the country, the GİYAV has recommended that child protection mechanisms should be established in line with the recommendations of the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Accordingly, the foundation has also recommended that the Article 124 of Turkey's Civil Code must be amended in such a way to ban marriages under the age of 18 with family's consent. It has also noted the religious officials must be deterred with penal sanctions from performing religious marriage ceremonies of children under the age of 18.

Concluding the report, the foundation has listed a series of other recommendations as to the rights of children with disabilities, child workers, children's rights amid the pandemic and individual disarmament. (EMK/SD)