Yasemin Soydan, a lawyer and member of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) Commission on Children’s Rights and Memory, spoke to ANF about the violations of children`s rights despite the many conventions Turkey has signed.
Human rights gains must be continuously advanced
Soydan underlined that Turkey is a party to several key international conventions on children’s rights and emphasized the importance of building upon those commitments: “Over the past century, significant developments have taken place in the field of children’s rights. Starting with the 1924 Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child and continuing with the 1989 United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, children’s rights have gained universal legal protection. Turkey has been actively engaged in this work since 1928, has ratified the Convention, and has been implementing it since 1995.
These international advances were widely promoted at the time by civil society organizations that helped raise awareness across society. The institutionalization of children’s rights and freedoms into public policies continues to be monitored through periodic reports submitted to the UN. However, especially in the field of criminal justice, we see that protective mechanisms for children are either not being implemented or are applied arbitrarily. It is essential that Turkey fulfill its obligations under these international commitments.”
Serious rights violations in child prosecution processes
Soydan noted that in Turkey there has been a recent increase in cases where children are taken into custody or detained in ways that violate legal standards. She explained: “The criminal justice system in Turkey contains numerous legal deficiencies that must be addressed. International protections concerning children’s rights and freedoms are very clear, children should not be included in criminal proceedings, and their protection must always come first. In cases where a child is involved in a criminal process, ‘child-specific protective measures’ should be the primary course of action. Global experience has shown that a punitive approach to justice does not deter children from crime.
Article 37 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, along with the Beijing Rules and the Havana Rules, clearly states that detention must only be used as a last resort. In this context, pretrial detention should only be applied in exceptional cases. Instead of pursuing detention or punishment, measures should focus on improving the child’s living conditions, ensuring protection, and providing psychological support. However, we are now seeing a rise in cases in Turkey where children are being taken into custody and detained in direct contradiction of these standards. These proceedings are often carried out without any social investigation or forensic psychological assessment. In many cases, the legally required social investigation reports and forensic psychiatric evaluations for children aged 12–15 and 15–18 are either not being prepared or are being ignored altogether. Courts also fail to explain why alternative measures, such as judicial supervision, are not being considered in place of detention. These practices represent serious violations of children’s rights and are in direct conflict with the core principles of a child-centered justice system.”
Debates centered on Kurdish children reinforce discriminatory narratives
Lawyer Yasemin Soydan stated that rhetoric around Kurdish children, especially on social media, has increasingly centered on their so-called “potential for criminality,” fueling a wave of discriminatory discourse. She also highlighted that while Turkey is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has placed reservations on the articles concerning minority children: “In recent days, we have seen public statements and social media posts circulate the idea that Kurdish children somehow ‘possess a potential for criminal behavior.’ Through these narratives, Kurdish children as a whole have been singled out and targeted. Such sweeping and exclusionary language not only threatens children’s rights but undermines the freedoms and protections of society as a whole.
Although Turkey has ratified international conventions aimed at protecting children’s rights and freedoms, it has taken a restrictive stance when it comes to children from minority backgrounds. This becomes especially clear in the case of Kurdish children. When signing the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Turkey placed reservations on Articles 17, 29, and 30, articles that guarantee linguistic, cultural, and educational rights for children belonging to minority or Indigenous communities. These reservations impose serious limitations on the rights of children, particularly Kurdish children, when it comes to expressing themselves, living their culture, and speaking their own language. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has also clearly stated that these reservations and the general approach they represent negatively affect the rights of the children concerned.
The language used today reinforces this unequal approach and damages the universal nature of children’s rights. Kurdish children are still treated as a ‘different’ or ‘exceptional’ category, which prevents the equal application of children’s rights. Yet children’s rights are meant to be a moral and legal system of protection that applies to every child without exception. Any suggestion that certain rights should not be extended to some children based on their ethnic identity is incompatible with both international human rights law and the principle of equality enshrined in Turkey’s Constitution.
No child should be subjected to different treatment, criminalization, or public targeting based solely on their identity. Discrimination against children is not only a personal injustice, it perpetuates systemic inequality and, over time, leads to deep social rifts and mistrust. For this reason, the juvenile justice system must be rebuilt on the principles of equality, justice, and anti-discrimination. The system must function in a way that is rights-based, inclusive, and entirely free of discriminatory logic, for all children.”
Source: ANF News
