Experts call on gov’t to fix juvenile justice system

Laws are in place in Turkey to protect the interests of children, but their implementation presents a major problem, experts argue. There are problems in the text of laws regarding terrorism; furthermore, Turkish Penal Code (TCK) articles governing minors conflict with the Anti-Terror Law, they noted. According to these experts, Turkey's juvenile justice system considers legal cases regarding minors only as “files,” but this perception has to be replaced with a system that focuses on the rights of children.

“We need a juvenile justice system in which the rights of children are observed from the first moment a child enters the system until it exits the system. Such a juvenile justice system should be designed in a way so that it has a strong self-regulating body and is able to rapidly find solutions for every child. But such a system can only be established if Turkey adopts a policy on minors based on rights,” Emrah Kırımsoy, from the Agenda Children Association, said.

The number of children who have run afoul of the law in Turkey is increasing sharply. Fifteen percent of suspects in all crimes are children, and this number goes up to as high as 25 percent for crimes against property, according to Ministry of Justice statistics. But the number of experts, juvenile courts and rehabilitation centers at the disposal of the children are limited, and these shortages lead to violations of the rights of children who come into conflict with the law and even push these children to commit more crimes.

According to the Turkish juvenile system, children should face trials in juvenile courts, but when it comes to allegations of violations of the Anti-Terror Law and the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), children are tried as adults. Most minors arrested under the Anti-Terror Law are of Kurdish ethnicity and are detained or arrested while participating in demonstrations or rallies in southeastern and eastern Anatolia.

Some of them face prison sentences of up to 25 years for throwing stones at security forces. In 2006 amendments to Article 9 of the Anti-Terror Law allowed minors between the ages of 16 and 18 to be tried as adults in high criminal courts. Another amendment to Article 13 of the Anti-Terror Law made it impossible for these children’s sentences to be postponed or commuted to another form of punishment. In some instances, children under 15 are tried as adults, but in a number of these cases, they are able to have their sentences postponed or commuted, as Article 13 indicates. “The penalty of imprisonment given in the context of these crimes cannot be commuted to optional sanctions or suspended. However, this provision is not applicable to children under the age of 15,” it states.

The government is planning to revise the Anti-Terror Law’s Articles 9 and 13 as part of its democratization initiative, which was launched to solve the country’s Kurdish question. The amendment is expected to be discussed in Parliament this month, but according to the Justice for Children Initiative (JCI), an advocacy group for children’s rights, these amendments will fail to protect children so long as other controversial articles in the TCK remain, such as Article 220, which states, “Any person who commits a crime in the name of an organization, even if not a member, shall also be punished for the crime of being a member of the organization.”

The JCI noted that, aside from those regulations, the Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in 2006 that “even if no membership in the illegal organization is identified, simply participating in a demonstration will be regarded as membership in the organization.”

The Supreme Court of Appeals indicated that in such cases, Article 314 of the TCK should apply, mandating a 10-year prison term.

The JCI indicates that as long as the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals and Article 220 of the TCK remain in effect, it will not be possible to save any child accused of a crime.

Special attitude needed based on child-oriented perspective

When it comes to other crimes, the situation is not always to the benefit of children, either. Although the legislation does not have major gaps, the main problem is the lack of experts and adequate infrastructure, Sabit Aktaş from the Ankara Bar Association’s children’s rights commission said.

“If there is a suspicion that a child is involved in a crime, juvenile authorities have to detain the child. This police unit is not allowed to take testimony and must make sure the child has immediate access to a lawyer. The child also has to see the juvenile prosecutor within 24 hours. This, at least, is what the law stipulates, but it doesn’t always work out this way in practice,” Aktaş told Today’s Zaman.

According to Aktaş, children see a juvenile prosecutor towards the end of their legal detention, but certainly not as soon as possible. Sometimes, if they are apprehended by the police, not by the juvenile police, the record shows their detention began when they were handed over to the juvenile police, but restrictions on their freedom start from the moment they are taken into custody.

He also underlined that the juvenile system’s “reports on the social situation of the child” are extremely important because these reports are supposed to indicate the social conditions of the child in question. The reports are very important when courts issue their decisions. “But these reports are usually inadequate. They are sometimes not prepared by experts. The training received by juvenile police, the juvenile prosecutor and the judges is inadequate, and they might not operate from the perspective of children’s rights,” he said.

Another problem faced by Turkey’s juvenile justice system is the shortage of juvenile courts, which can only be found in 16 cities. The rest of the cities and towns try children in regular courts. But even being tried in a juvenile court, however, does not ensure that the children are processed properly.

“Since they are limited in number, their workload is very heavy. Although in principle the case should be concluded as soon as possible, this does not happen. At times, until the court reaches a verdict, a child may remain under arrest -- sometimes for a long period of time. Such a situation brings about further problems, such as an interruption to the child’s education, and makes the rehabilitation process even more difficult,” Aktaş said.

Yet another problem of the Turkish juvenile justice system is the shortage of rehabilitation centers for children. There are only four juvenile prisons in Turkey; the balance of children convicted of crimes stay in special units in other prisons.

“If the children stay in normal prisons, rehabilitation facilities can be limited. There is also the added danger that even if the units are separate, they may have to interact with adult inmates. They can be abused by them, or the children may become members of adult gangs,” Aktaş said.

Associate Professor Yüksek Baykara Acar of Hacattepe University underlined that the Turkish juvenile system is based on punishment without considering the characteristics of the offenders. “Imprisoning a child might not be helpful in preventing it from committing future crimes because the child might not ask the question, Why am I here?” she said.

Acar added that restorative justice and probation should be put into practice in the juvenile justice system and that there are legal grounds for these kinds of implementations in Turkey but that they are still limited to a few facilities.

She added that the juvenile system should have a multifunctional basis and that preventing crime should be the priority. “If you design an interconnected system, then you can help the child before the crime is committed. Such a system needs well-organized schools, youth programs and education geared towards families,” she underlined.