UN asks Turkey why it is jailing teenagers ANKARA - An inquiry from the United Nations concerning Turkey’s courts trying stone-throwing children under age 18 in the Southeast as terrorists has heated up the debate over the country’s judicial system.
With an amendment made to the Turkish Penal Code, or TCK, in 2005, the scope of the anti-terror law expanded. Heavier punishments were brought for those who intentionally committed a crime on behalf of a terrorist organization, even if they were not members.
The children who throw stones at police or chant illegal slogans in favor of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, at street demonstrations, for instance, are tried for being members of a terrorist organization, according to the law. Legal experts say over 1,000 children were taken into custody within the last two years for this reason. According to the Initiative for Justice for Children, there are currently 300 such children aged between 12 and 18 who are detained in prisons.
In its letter to the Turkish Justice Ministry, the United Nations has asked a number of questions about the situation of children under age 18 who are charged under the anti-terror law, daily Sabah reported Wednesday. In addition to the number of these children and the definition of terrorist activities, questions about whether they should be judged by the civilian or military court, how their rights are protected, the number of children who were used by the terrorist organizations in conflicts, and the state’s measures to prevent this situation remain among the questions that must be answered by Aug. 4.
Legal experts, meanwhile, argue that there is no balance between the crime and its punishment. The absence of juvenile courts also leads to injustices.
"There should be a balance between punishment and crime. With the amended law, people including children are now judged like terrorists simply for throwing a stone at police in street demonstrations even though they aren’t a member of a terror organization," said lawyer Tahir Elçi of the Diyarbakır Bar Association.
Critical of 2006 amendment
Elçi is one of those who presented a report on the issue to the United Nations in its meeting in June.
He also criticized the removal of the juvenile courts with an amendment made to the anti-terror law in 2006, enabling the high criminal courts with special authorization to judge children aged between 15 and 18.
"Before 2006 the children, who are charged as part of the anti-terror law, were judged by the juvenile courts, where the prosecutors were equipped with special skills and knowledge to judge children. Now they are judged like terrorists in high criminal courts," Elçi said. "And there are no prisons in Turkey specially designed for children. The children stay with adults in the same prison."
Lawyer Nalan Erkem of the Initiative for Justice for Children said the children mentally and physically weren’t aware that their actions, such as throwing stones or shouting slogans, were against the state.
"Children can be aware that throwing a stone at police may constitute a crime but they are not capable of understanding the meaning of their action and that they are propagating a terror organization. At that age, they are not aware of the gravity of the crime," said Erkem.
"Those who fought for the PKK in the mountains could be released after a certain period of imprisonment, while children are deemed terrorists even if they attend a terror organization’s meeting that protested the price increase in bread. This is injustice," Erkem said.
She also said the children were judged in the high criminal courts without taking into consideration the other factors that led them to commit the crime. Children cannot enjoy the rights they would normally benefit from if judged in a juvenile court. The way they are judged is against the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Ill treatment in prisons
Ethem Açıkalın, Adana branch chairman of the Human Rights Association, or İHD, meanwhile, said the applications to the İHD revealed that children faced trauma in prisons.
"Children’s families told us that their children were joyful and social before entering prison but showed symptoms of insomnia and introversion afterward. Children complain about ill treatment in prisons," he said. "Detention should be the last solution, but in Turkey it comes first. There are no children who are released before at least three months, which harms their mental well-being."
The Wednesday edition of daily Radikal also confirmed the situation. The children who were charged of political crimes in Istanbul’s Maltepe prison, where they are on hunger strike, claimed that they are beaten, isolated, called terrorists and subject to strip searches, Radikal reports.
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/12032535.asp?scr=1 
