Press Centre 2005/06/17: Child Protection

Protecting the Rights of Children Living and/or Working on the Streets

A New Child Protection Model

İstanbul, 17 June 2005 -- The issue of children living and/or working on the street is not new to Turkey although numbers of children in this situation have grown rapidly during the course of the previous decade. A range of factors related to poverty such as rising unemployment, massive internal migration, family breakdown and low access to quality basic social services contribute to the deterioration of the safety net for children.

Adverse publicity generated by the media focus on street crime has exacerbated the issue, resulting in negative attitudes towards children living and/or working on the streets.

A Big Step towards a Solution

To reaffirm their commitment and make plans of action to better protect the rights of children, more than 225 participants including representatives from five different ministries, parliamentarians, governors, mayors, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academicians, the media and children met between the 16th and 17th of June at the Princess Hotel, İstanbul. The conference was made possible due to support from UNICEF and the EU and focused on implementation of a new Service Model for Children Living and/or Working on the Streets prepared by the Social Services and Child Protection Agency (SHÇEK).

The conference recognised that the establishment, implementation and monitoring of preventive measures was key to providing a sustainable solution for children and their families. During his opening speech the UNICEF Representative in Turkey, Edmond McLoughney, said:

The new protection agenda should focus on prevention. Education, parenting skills and support for families are the surest way for children to reach their potential.

The State Minister Responsible for Women’s and Children’s Issues, Nimet Çubukçu said:

The establishment of shelters for children, nutrition, provision of basic health services and education are existing strategies to support and protect children living or working on the street. We have to reintegrate these children into the community and we need to develop new strategies to protect them from the street.

The Situation in Turkey

• Just under 42,000 children living and/or working on the streets have so far been reached by Child and Youth Centres where they have been provided with care and protection including access to education. However, estimates range up to 80,000 children living and working on the streets.
• The Child Labour Survey of the State Institute of Statistics (SIS) 1999 estimates that 1.6 million children between the ages of 6 and 17 years are economically active: of these, 625,000 are girls and 1,010,000 are boys.

The Conference calls for:

• Establishment of a Protective and Preventive Child Protection Model to reduce the number of children living and/or working on the streets and to prevent children who are at risk from engaging in street life;
• A shift in thinking (need to elaborate) and social policies
• Establish provincial action plans with a realistic time frame and budget in partnership with civil society, academics, the private sector and the media
• Participation of children and families in the development, efficient implementation and monitoring of the action plans.

The conference is the result of a partnership including SHÇEK, UNICEF, the Ministry of National Education (MONE), the EU, the Support Basic Education Programme (SBEP), NGOs and children.

All relevant government authorities gave input for a Declaration of Commitment outlining the course of action to be taken to create a protective environment for children.

Voices of Children

Child delegates to the conference conducted their own Forum for Debate in tandem with the general proceedings. One of the child delegates, fourteen-year-old Seda said that:

Everyone plays a part in the issue of children living and working on the street because these children are excluded. And society excludes them. No child decides to exclude himself. Children need the opportunity to express themselves because we have young minds, we have fresh ideas and we can be useful in helping to find a solution to the problem.

Focusing on the situation of children living and/or working on the streets and also those who are at risk of engaging in street life, the conference found that, despite many efficient strategies and progress in the field, a great deal remains to be done in Turkey. One of the child delegates, 17 year-old Murat, said that:

Children in need of special protection need to be able to trust the authorities who are seeking to care for them. It's up to the authorities to work out how they should do that but they should do it sooner rather than later because, without the trust of the children they are trying to help, they can offer no real help at all.

Children attending the Conference called for:

• Mothers and Fathers to avoid divorce and only to have as many children as they can afford to raise;
• The media to not label them street children or to portray them as a threat;
• Teachers to support their reintegration into schools;
• Parliament to give more attention to child protection issues;
• Hospitals to make health care available to children free of charge;
• Police to treat them well.

Declaration of Commitment

The participants stated that the recent increase in numbers of children living and working on the street is closely related to poverty caused by high unemployment, the breakdown of the family unit, poor access to quality social services, uncontrolled migration and rapid urbanisation. Thus, a call was made for economic and social measures at the macro level. Furthermore, the participants asserted that a child protection monitoring and evaluation system should be established; budgets for social services targeted at children at risk should be increased; access to quality pre-school education should be improved; efforts to get girls and boys who are out of school back into the education system should be continued; parents’ training programmes should be expanded and that the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme, implemented within the framework of the Social Risk Mitigation Loan Project (SRMP), should be continued after 2006 in view of its positive outcomes.

Participants also decided that each province should develop its own preventive measures in order to reduce the number of children engaging in street life. The first step will be for each priority province to determine its respective provincial child poverty profile. Further, participants highlighted the importance of preparing local action plans based on the social structure of each respective province; developing preventive and alternative measures for children at risk; supporting families of children engaged in street life to ensure their reintegration with their families; increasing local budget allocations as per the division of roles and responsibilities and ensuring the participation of children and families in every stage of planning and implementation of strategies.

Above are the priority actions at central and local levels. Additionally, it is also stated that mobilisation of the society and improving the physical infrastructure are also necessary. Both children who currently live and/or work on the streets or those formerly engaged in street life remain at risk. Therefore, in order to monitor the situation of these children, the infrastructure necessary for the effective implementation of the service model should be improved at the provincial level with local authorities and NGOs; awareness should be raised with the participation of NGOs, municipalities, local leaders and media; coordination among all related sectors should be strengthened; the capacity of personnel should be strengthened both in terms of quantity and quality and the media should comply with national and international norms and standards to uphold the best interests of the child in their coverage of the issue.

For more information:

Sema Hosta, Communication Officer, UNICEF Turkey Tel: (+ 90 312) 454 1000 Mobile: (+ 90 533) 622 83 46

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