HDP demands Parliamentary inquiry into child abuse

* Photo: Sendika.org Arşivi / csgorselarsiv.org

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairs Meral Danış-Beştaş and Saruhan Oluç have noted that child abuse is common, as is recently seen in the incidents in Elmalı and Uşak, and submitted a Parliamentary inquiry, demanding that a Parliamentary investigation be launched into child abuse and preventive policies be developed.

With their Parliamentary inquiry, Danış-Beştaş and Oluç have requested that the Parliamentary investigation focus on identifying the factors behind child abuse, revealing the responsibility of public institutions in that regard, an effective functioning of the judicial and administrative investigation proceedings and development of holistic policies, thereby preventing abuse.

In the justification part of the inquiry, HDP Group Deputy Chairs Danış-Beştaş and Oluç have stressed that "the perpetrators of child abuse, which - most of the time - occur as sexual violence, are not only strangers; the perpetrators might as well be their parents, family members, relatives, educators or guardians, whom children know and trust."

Raising concerns that child abuse has an effect on children not only in the related time period, but at later ages as well, they have noted that "child abuse seriously hinders the physical, emotional, sexual and mental development of children of all ages, groups and income levels."

Oluç and Danış-Beştaş have also referred to the state agency Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) within this context. According to the HDP, the TurkStat statistics for the years 2019 and 202 are not announced.

Referring to the international conventions, such as the Lanzarote Convention, which Turkey is also a party to, they have stressed that these conventions obligate the state parties to keep record of the information about perpetrators of sexual offenses and to keep these records.

"However, the relevant ministries do not have any work or collect data about this," they have raised concerns further.

Reference to recent incidents

HDP Group Deputy Chairs Danış-Beştaş and Oluç have also referred to the incident in Antalya's Elmalı, where two children had been sexually abused and the defendants were released, and to the incident in Uşak province, where a two-year-old baby was subjected to abuse.

Against this backdrop, they have stressed that these incidents "have once again shown how burning the problem of child abuse in Turkey is":

As revealed in the cases of Pozantı and Ensar Foundation, child abuse could also take place in state and public institutions. Moreover, the violence inflicted in these examples is - most of the time - a sexual assault targeting more than one child. However, a vast majority of perpetrators go unpunished.

Accordingly, the HDP has underlined that "it is crucial to set up a Parliamentary investigation commission with the aim of revealing the dimension of this violence, identifying the factors behind it and developing holistic policies so that child abuse can be prevented." (AÖ/SD)