Turkey: Law Broken Once Again: Children Are Blacklisted!

Disregardance of Law Once Again: Children Are Blacklisted!

Children have been exposed to many different forms of state violence in the protests that took place in many different parts of Turkey, in order to support the protests that commenced in Taksim Gezi Park as of May 31st. Hundreds of people, including children were arrested and thousands of people were wounded. Instead of ending police violence and lending an ear to the demands of the people, using various methods the Government has started blacklisting people; including children and young who participated in these events.

Ab initio, detainees were unlawfully photographed. When asked on what grounds the photographs were taken the reply was the “order of the prosecutor”. Upon the questioning of a written order it was replied that the order was “verbal”. Mobile phones and digital devices of detainees were arbitrarily confiscated without valid legal grounds.  Records of wounded activists who were admitted to hospitals were also supplied to the police.

The Ministry of Justice Has Joined the Blacklisting!

With the official letter dated and numbered 07.06.2013/2409/36004, the Ministry of Justice’s General Directorate of Criminal Affairs, has asked the TR ID numbers of all detainees that have participated in the Gezi Park protests from all of the prosecution offices, including minors under the age of 18.

However, recording and archiving the personal information of children under the age of 18 is principally against the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, the Law of Child Protection, the Law on Criminal Records, and to the UN Convention on Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights which Turkey had ratified.

In regard to the official letter of the Ministry of Justice which clearly violates freedom of expression and the human rights of citizens including children; with this announcement we immediately demand: the rule of stay of execution (as is clearly unlawful in its nature) and the cancellation of the order and to start administrative and legal proceedings against those who demanded and supplied personal information of the detainees.

We Urge the Ombudsman to Take Action!

We urge the Ombudsman Serpil Çakın who is in charge of the Rights of Women, Children and Disabled to take this notice as a call and immediately fulfill her duty! We feel the urge to remind that; the states have the obligation and duty to respect the human rights of the child, and to protect the human rights and development of children and are bound by law and the international conventions to which it is a party to.

Association of Agenda Child

(11 June 2013)

Agenda: Child! is a non-governmental organization which persistently advocates an integrated transformation benefiting children in order to ensure that every child leads a decent and happy life in peace as an equal, free, and dignified individual enjoying his or her rights. It carries out its works consisting of programs aiming to change the paradigm lying at the root of problems observed in the field of the rights of the child as well as advocacy, networking, and participation programs in collaboration with children who are its primary colleagues.

ENDS

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