Say Yes, February 2002: Security for Children

In the year 2000, 16,431 children were either killed or injured and roughly 20% of all crimes were committed against children. Just under a third of the child population of Turkey is in the labour force where they can easily be exposed to abuse. It is not known exactly how many children are living on the streets, a disturbing fact in itself, but it is certain that the number is rising steadily in metropolitan and urban areas.

Of children in contact with the law, only 10% of an estimated 133,600 cases filed in 1997 were seen by child courts. Of crimes committed in the year 2000, 22% of burglary and theft, 9% of assaults and 14% of convictions for public disorder were juvenile offenses. Additional hardships brought about by the social and economic impact of the Marmara earthquakes in 1999 and the recent crisis engendered by devaluation of the Turkish Lira would point to an increase in crimes by children and against children.

Much of the current legislation in Turkey has yet to comply with the principles and standards of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and there are very few well-developed examples of alternative education and treatment programmes such as those recommended in Children in Need of Special Protection Measures (CINSPM).

In response, the Ministry of Justice and the General Directorate of Security, along with the Bar Association, the Youth Re-autonomy Foundation, the Social Services and Child Protection Agency (SHÇEK) and UNICEF established the Upgrading of the Juvenile Justice System in Turkey Project with funding from the European Commission. The project aims to effectively protect the rights of children in contact with the law and children who are victims of, or witnesses to abuse and to successfully rehabilitate them.

The Child Police

The first point of conflict between the child and the law is generally the police. Unused to dealing with situations involving children, the police can be at a disadvantage when they approach youngsters who may already fear, or are at least wary of, their uniformed presence.

UNICEF has been contributing to the efforts of the General Directorate of Security to enhance police awareness of their role in reaching out to children.

The Services for the Protection of Minors has been restructured and accordingly renamed the ‘Child Police’ with new legislation enabling them to employ social workers, teachers, psychologists and child development specialists. These measures will enhance their capacity to assess the situation of children with whom they come into contact and new legislation will also allow for extra training on the treatment of children in custody and also for child specialisation of police work.

Since the regulation of the Child Police, the General Directorate of Security has trained over four hundred police officers in high-risk provinces such as İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir and Gaziantep in CRC principles; related national legislation; child and adolescent psychology and communication. Extra resources have been allocated to police working with children.

At the invitation of UNICEF, Interpol gave a presentation on good practices for police officers working on crimes committed against children, including sexual crimes, and a handbook was translated and distributed.

The Child Police have changed their uniform to a less threatening style and are encouraged to adopt a more understanding approach to the children. Steps are being taken to ensure that child-related issues will be followed-up by specialised personnel and that initial interviews with newly-received children will be conducted by a social worker.

Child Care Units have been set up in 19 provinces to shelter and protect children who come to the police station for brief intervals until they are returned to their families or are referred to another agency such as SHÇEK.

In collaboration with the State Institute of Statistics (SIS), work is being carried out in 27 provinces accounting for 50% of Turkey’s population which will help to standardise data on children in contact with the law.

For more information on Improving the Juvenile Justice System, see our Programmes section. Read A Grim Road and Every Child Matters in the Spring 2004 issue of Say Yes.

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The Child Police collected over 60,000 signatures for Say Yes for Children in Turkey. The Minister of the Interior presented the list to the State Minister responsible for Children, Women and Families at a press conference in September.