'Nearly 60,000 children abused in Turkey in three years'

"Child abuse is a crime against humanity"

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu has compiled a report about children's rights in Turkey on the occasion of World Children's Day.

Referring to various sources, including bianet's Male Violence Monitoring Reports, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and the Human Rights Association (İHD), Tanrıkulu stated the following:

• Turkey made a reservation to articles 17, 29 and 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which cover the rights to education, freedom of expression, to enjoy their own culture and use their own language freely.
• In the first 10 months of 2020, at least 21 children were killed by men, according to bianet Male Violence Monitoring Reports.
• At least two children were wounded and one died in incidents where security forces used firearms.
• At least two children were wounded because of landmines or unclaimed bombs and explosives.
• At least two refugee/immigrant children lost their lives in attacks by racist people or groups.
• At least eight refugee children lost their lives while migrating.
• At least 28 children were subjected to torture or maltreatment by security forces.
• At least 279 children were abused by men in 2019 and 226 children were abused in the first 10 months of this year, according to bianet Male Violence Monitoring Reports.
• A total of 59,284 children, with 7,466 boys and 51,818 girls, were subjected to sexual abuse between 2014 and 2017, according to the TurkStat.
• In the last 16 years, 440,000 children gave birth (İHD).
• Among all sexual crimes, 46 percent are committed against children (İHD).
• More than 25 percent of the women in Turkey married before the age of 18 and this rate is 32 percent for rural regions (International Federation of Business and Professional Women-BPW).
• In the first 10 months of 2020, at least 53 children died in occupational homicides.
• About 720,000 children are working in the country (TurkStat).
• Nearly 80 percent of the working children are in the 15-17 age group, 15.6 percent are in the 12-14 age group and 4.4 percent are in the 5-11 age group (TurkStat 2019 child labor survey).
• 70.6 percent of the working children are boys and 29.4 percent are girls (TurkStat).
• The infant mortality rate in Turkey is 9.2 per 1,000 children. (RT/VK)