Early warning system to protect children

ANKARA

Family Minister Fatma Şahin says Institutions for care and the protection of children are being restructured in a way to separate victims and offenders. DHA photo

Turkey will launch a new system aimed at intervening earlier to protect children believed to be at risk of violence, Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin has said.

A system of “early detection and early warning” has been formed with the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), Şahin told reporters at a two-day conference on combating violence against children, which was jointly organized by the Turkish government, the Council of Europe and UNICEF.

Experts to be assigned to families

“Whenever we enter the system, we can see how many children the family has, or what kind of education they have,” Şahin said. An expert from the family social assistance project will be assigned to each family and will intervene if the family’s children are in any danger.

UNICEF Turkey representative Ayman Abulaban, Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Thematic Coordinator for Children Anica Djamic, U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children Marta Santos Pais, Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Şahin, and Norwegian State Secretary of the Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion Ahmad Ghanizadeh are attending the meeting.

From institutions to families

Şahin said her ministry was carrying out work to place 8,000 children from protection institutions into families. Institutions for care and the protection of children are being restructured in a way to separate victims and offenders, she also said, adding that victims and offenders would be categorized according to their age and gender in the new system.

Proper documentation of domestic violence against women and children and of women’s deaths due to domestic violence began only a year ago with the establishment of the Family and Social Affairs Ministry, ministry officials said in June 2012.