Parliament report lists measures to prevent child abuse

ANKARA

An investigation group commissioned by the parliament has prepared a report listing the measures to be taken to “intervene and eliminate child abuse risks,” after a shocking case of a woman who was forced to marry at the tender age of 6 came to the forefront.

The commission was formed when the controversial case, also causing anger on social media, came to the parliament’s agenda last December after Sera Kadıgil, a Workers’ Party of Türkiye (TİP) deputy, filed motions to six ministries.

The woman, identified only by the initials H.K.G., accused her father, Yusuf Ziya Gümüşel, the head of the Hiranur Foundation affiliated with İsmailağa Jamia, of forcibly marrying her to a 29-year-old sect member, Kadir İstekli, in 2004 when she was just 6 years old.

The draft report stimulates the authorities to raise the awareness of people involved in the children’s ecosystems that all kinds of ill-treatment, early marriages, and all kinds of neglect and sexual abuse against children are unacceptable.

Accordingly, educational, artistic and cultural activities such as public service announcements, seminars, theaters and exhibitions should be encouraged, it added.

The report underlines the importance of all intervention and protection-based measures regarding the abused children’s health examination that would reveal the findings of violence. It also warns judicial units to pay particular attention to similar cases.

Guides and videos should be prepared on the paths to be followed by individuals who witness child abuse, and their visibility in online and face-to-face environments and public spaces should be increased, according to the report.

The report also argues that rehabilitation programs should be designed in schools so that child victims or juveniles pushed to crime can adapt to school in a healthy way. It also advocates some sanctions against the families of the delinquent.

Measures to prevent school absenteeism of students at the age of compulsory education should be increased, and research on the causes behind should be expanded, the report urges, pointing out that an early warning system should also be established to detect the children at risk of dropping out.

Meanwhile, a children’s rights commission is being planned to be established within the parliament, which will be assigned to inspect dormitories affiliated with public and private institutions and share the reports with the public.