Children Have a Day, But No Rights

Cetin drew attention to the regulations, in Turkey and in the world, that disregard children's rights, and called on the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be more responsive.

"On this very important day, we call on the authorities to improve the legal sanctions towards preventing the violation of children's rights. The NGOs should also be more responsive in order to protect children against discrimination, torture, mistreatment and exploitation."

Cetin said that the UN Children Rights Convention Turkey signed on September 14, 1990, aims to protect children's psychological and physical entirety. This convention inflicts important responsibilities on states for the healthy personal development of children, said Cetin.

"There is very widespread violation of children's basic rights in Turkey. Formal statistics verify this opinion," he said.

"For example, a research based on the records of the Children's Branch of the Ankara Police Department demonstrates that 35 percent of the working children are under the age of 13."

According to the State Statistics Institute, 21.96 percent of the children between the ages of 12-14, work, said Cetin. He gave the following information on the problem:

* 39.72 percent of children between the ages of 15-18, work and do not benefit from the right of getting education.

* The data by the Family Research Institution show that domestic violence is

quite widespread. A research conducted among 50,473 children with ages 4-12, demonstrated that 62.60 percent of the children are subjected to physical punishment with no regard of their sexuality.

* Children are exposed to violence in schools and workplaces too. Television channels that broadcast a large number of movies with pornographic or violent content, damage children's psychological health.

* The reformatories do not provide children with adequate healthy nutrition or ample educational facilities. The children in reformatories are widely subjected to violence and sexual exploitation. In Turkey, children constitute 10 percent of people who are subject to torture.

Over a million disabled children

* Statistics by the National Education Ministry demonstrate that there are 1 million 100 thousand disabled children in Turkey, who are aged between 4 and 18 years. 45,000 of them are optically disabled, 130,000 have a hearing disability, and 500,000 children are mentally disabled, while 300,000 have a motor disorder. These disabled children are not provided with adequate education.

The fact that only two percent of the disabled children go to school, emphasizes this reality.

Children become adults in "streets"

* Another important problem is the problem of homeless children. In fact, the problem has transformed to become a problem of homeless people. Because, a significant number of children who live in the streets, grow up to become adults who live in the streets. According to statistics by Homeless Children's Associations, there are 20,000 children only in Istanbul, who live in the streets. (EA/NM)