Two new reports highlight violations of children's rights in Türkiye

Click to read the article in Turkish (1) (2)

The Human Rights Organization (İHD) Diyarbakır branch and Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG) published their new reports on the occasion of World Children's Day, November 20. Of the reports, the former is on violations of rights of the child in East and Northeast Anatolia regions of Türkiye in the last five years, and the latter on the child workers killed on the job in the whole of Türkiye in the last ten years.

Abdullah Zeytun, Chairperson of the İHD Diyarbakır branch has spoken in the press meeting where their new report was announced and said that the right to life was violated mostly for children as a result of the conflict and violence since many years and the security focused policies followed.

After Zeytun spoke Eylül Özgültekin, member of Diyarbakır İHD Commission for Children's Rights giving information about the report.

Özgültekin said, "Most basic rights of children are being violated starting with the right to live due to the conflict and violence" and that "children were becoming targets since the conflict spreads to residential areas."

"There are children who are injured or who lose their lives with explosives," said Özgültekin.

Most frequent cases of violence

Özgültekin also said, "Conflict areas, mines and explosives left behind, bombings, misconducts/neglecting by official authorities, violence against children, sexual abuse, child labor, questionable deaths and suicides, violations of freedoms or security of the child and violence subjected to at school are among the mostly seen violations"

Özgültekin then listed the violations of children's rights recorded in five years between 2017-2021:

* The right to life of at least 132 children was violation in the region between 2017 and 2021, and 385 children were injured in the same period.
* 2 children lost their lives and 1 child was injured by shooting in armed conflicts.
* 2 children lost their lives and 5 children injured heavily in extrajudicial killings (by the police or the gendarme).
* 4 children lost their lives in bombings.
* 13 children lost their lives and 26 children injured heavily due to mines and explosives left.
* 19 children lost their lives and 265 children injured due to misconducts/neglecting by official authorities. (12 children lost their lives and 12 children injured heavily as a result of 20 incidents where armored/official/civil vehicles used by security forces were involved.)
* There have been 26 questionable child deaths in the region in these five years. (With Antep, Diyarbakır, Van and Mardin being the cities where such deaths were seen most)
* 30 children lost their lives as a result of committing suicide and there were 11 attempted suicides by children in the region. (Suicide of children were seen mostly in Diyarbakır, Şırnak, Urfa, and then Van)
* 16 children lost their lives and 50 children were injured as a result of violence in the family. 43 children were subject to sexual abuse within the family, and 6 children were abducted/kept.
* 20 children lost their lives and 27 children were injured as a result of violence in social life. 613 children were subject to sexual abuse within the society, 17 children abducted and 5 children were forced to sex labor.
*157 children were taken into custody and 14 children were arrested.
* A total of at least 71 children were subjected to torture and ill treatment, 29 under custody, 8 in prisons and 34 elsewhere. At least 6 children was subjected to violence at school.
The report by Diyarbakır İHD is also underlining that impunity is causing more rights violations to occur.

Child workers killed on job 

Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG) also released a new report covering the ten years 2013-2022. The report revealed that at least 616 children have been killed on the job in the last ten years.

211 of these children were 14 or younger, while 405 were between15-17.

İSİG stated that the data of the official institutions related to child labor was "limited and contradictory" and "not up to date" and "not reflecting the facts." Giving examples for this form the "Yearly Workplace Accident Statistics" of the Social Security Institution, İSİG shared their data:

• At least 616 children have been killed on the job in the last ten years.
• 211 of these children were 14 or younger, while 405 were between15-17.
• 96 children were girls while 520 were boys.
• Four children were 4 years old, five children were 5, four were 6, five were 7, twelve were 8, twelve were 9, twenty four were 10, thirteen were 11, thirty two were 12, thirty nine were 13, sixty one were 14, eighty seven were 15, 123 were sixteen and 195 were seventeen years old.
• The İSİG Report also revealed that 70 out of 616 children killed on the job were migrant/refugee children.

İSİG report underlined, "the levesl child labor and figures of child workers killed on the job have reached indicate a policy of exploiting child labor' and listed their demands:

• The education system and the education policies encouraging cheap child labor should be brought to an end. All children should be given the opportunity of free and good quality education.
• Data related to child labor should be collected using scientific methods and published regularly.
• There should be controls and penalties imposed on the persons and institutions using informal child labor. The related legislation should be implemented.
• All children should go through free and detailed medical screening. Sufficient, healthy and balanced nutrition should be available for all children, immune systems of children should be strengthened.
• Child labor should be banned. (RT/SD/PE/VK)