On 19 August 1982, the UN General Assembly decided to commemorate 4 June of each year as the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression for the purpose of acknowledging the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse. 34 years after its approval, unfortunately, wars are continuing in many places around the world and lots of people, including a great number of children, have been losing their lives.

According to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, ratified by Turkey also, all the children have the right to live, and it is the fundamental duty of governments to protect and secure this right. Mainly the authorities in the government, each political group in the Turkish Parliament as well as the UNICEF, the UN’s human rights mechanisms, the EU and the COE are all have the responsibility for the realisation of the conventions that Turkey signed.

We, as human rights defenders, would like to state that the above mentioned organisations have a part in the former and future violations of children’s rights as much as states and governments. Each institution and organisation has to be conscious of all types of violence against children.

Turkey, as a State Party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, acknowledged its liability over the freedom and rights of the child on all conditions. Pursuant to the articles 6 and 27 of the Convention, Turkey is obliged to supply each child within its borders with a sufficient life standard, health services and right to education. However, in our country, children are exposed to all sorts of violence and the most basic right, right to life, is violated.

The mostly-affected victims of the 40-year-lasting armed conflict are the children. They have been wounded, forced to leave their hometowns, or killed. They have lost their family members, homes and schools. They missed out right to health. We would like to state that, since the beginning of armed conflict in July 2015, they have been deprived of rights to life, education and health primarily. Independent reports have shown that around 100 children lost their lives, and thousands more were forced to migrate. Since the attempted coup in 2015 and the state of emergency imposed right afterwards, there have been an atmosphere of security oriented policies and children living in and around conflict zones have been suffering serious violations of right to live. 16 children have been murdered and 12 more have been injured especially by armoured military vehicles in accidents since 2008.

Investigations on these violations have mostly ended up with impunity. Very recently, in Silopi Town of Şırnak Province, an armoured police vehicle crashed the wall of a house, entering into the room and killing two children named Muhammed and Furkan. A case was filed but the police officer driving the vehicle was released at the very first trial.

It is a well known that people having fled Syria due to the war are undergoing many difficulties both on the way to and in the countries they refuge. Many of these sad stories, starting with a hope to set up a new life, unfortunately end up with death as seen in the story of little Alan Kurdi’s body by the seaside. A very large number of juvenile refugees do not have access to education, health and housing, and most of them have to work under harsh conditions. We demand from the State Parties to stick to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and fulfil their obligations, remove violence and pressure around the child and protect the physical and psychological unity of them.

We demand that all national and international human rights organisations work with us to make violations of children’s rights public, and show their democratic reactions.

HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION (HRA) DIYARBAKIR BRANCH

Commission on the Rights of the Child