To All Living Things
Last Week's Column

Amnesty Action:
Torture of Children in Turkish Police Stations
by Kathy Gay

his week’s action is part of Amnesty International’s current campaign on Turkey, which began in October 1996 and runs through March 1997.

Throughout this campaign thousands of Amnesty activists around the world are focusing much of their human rights energy on human rights abuses in Turkey. These abuses include widespread torture and ill-treatment, "disappearances" (in 1994 more people "disappeared" in Turkey than in any other country in the world), death squad style killings, deaths in custody, and restrictions on freedom of expression. Some of these abuses, particularly torture and ill-treatment, are committed against children.

Background Information

Turkey is a relatively modern, fairly wealthy country. It has been a multi-party democracy for nearly fifty years. Its civil society is well-established and some forms of political dissent have become standard, even expected. It has a lively press, an active trade union movement and numerous political parties. Universities are filled with students who have many different political, religious and philosophical ideas, and demonstrations in protest of government actions and policies are common.

But this is not the whole picture. The Turkish constitution guarantees a political role for the military which, not surprisingly, has been eager to exercise its power. Military forces have staged three coups in the last three decades, and were last overthrown by a conservative-right party in 1983. Since then, and even before, the Turkish government has been unwilling to challenge the military when it oversteps the limits of the law. Instead, it allows the military to violate human rights, apparently believing that this is an effective method of handling armed opposition groups which have themselves committed numerous human rights atrocities.

But it is not only the military that has long been operating with a sense of impunity -- the police have as well. In fact, no one who finds himself in a Turkish police station is safe from torture, not even a child.

Children and young people, many of whom are arrested on suspicion of minor offenses, are often tortured and ill-treated in police stations and denied the special protection which the law provides for them. Those from less advantaged backgrounds seem to be particularly at risk. So are children and young people charged under the Anti-Terror Act of April 1991.

When a person is detained under the Anti-Terror Act, the police or gendarmerie have fifteen days before they are required to bring the person before the court. In the ten provinces currently under a state of emergency, the police have thirty days to bring the person before the court. Consequently, those in custody -- including children -- may be held without access to family, doctors or legal counsel. With no access to the outside world, detainees are at the mercy of their interrogators.

Turkish law recognizes that children are particularly vulnerable and need special safeguards. It states that those under 16 years of age can only be interrogated by a prosecutor and in the presence of a lawyer. But in real life these provisions are frequently disregarded. Not only that, but those who have ignored proper custody procedures for children, and even committed acts of torture against them, have not been prosecuted and punished.

For many years, Amnesty International has been drawing attention to the underlying causes that allow torture and ill-treatment to persist: incommunicado police detention and interrogation, official refusal to investigate allegations of abuse, the impunity enjoyed by some members of the security forces responsible for violations, and a legal and judicial framework that sanctions abusive practices. In order to make its safeguards effective, the Turkish government should not only prosecute and punish torturers, but also impose strong penalties against police and gendarmerie officers who ignore proper custody procedures for children.

How you can help

Please add your voice to this important campaign and send a letter to the Prime Minister of Turkey immediately if possible, but no later than March 15, 1997. You may use the sample letter linked below or use it as a model to write your own letter. If you choose to use the sample letter, please cut off or delete all website information at the very top of the letter. If you choose to write your own letter, make sure that it is politely worded and non-partisan (i.e., not used as a vehicle for political expression). Be sure to include both your name and address, as well as the date, on the letter.

U.S. airmail postage to Turkey is 60 cents.

Questions?

If you have any questions, just post a message to me (Kathy Gay) at the Pub, and I will respond as soon as I can. I greatly appreciate your interest and support.

To see the sample letter for this action, please click here.

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Kathy Gay is a vegan, and has been a member of Amnesty International for nearly 10 years, where she has worked on numerous campaigns. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a business analyst for a leading California bank.

Kathy's column, To All Living Things, is a regular feature of VegSource On-Line Magazine.