When we discuss children’s rights, we are actually referring to the rights and freedoms held by the group known as children, perhaps a class, although the issue of children constituting a distinct class is debatable. And, of course, when we say children, we cannot speak of a homogeneous group. This “class or group of children,” encompassing great diversity such as “rich child,” “poor child,” “girl child,” “boy child,” “sick child,” “working child” converges on one point: being subjected to different treatment than adults, simply because of their “status of being a child,” independent of the diversity they contain.
As Bob Franklin says, children are subjected to “many political, economic, legal, educational, and everyday-life restrictions” because of their “status as children.” In fact, considering all these restrictions through the lens of the “right to have rights”, a concept Hannah Arendt used to expose the states’ hypocritical attitude, particularly toward refugees, and to broaden the concept of citizenship, would help expose the hypocrisy children are also subjected to. But let us return to Bob Franklin…
We can see that the restrictions Bob Franklin refers to, which children are subjected to, are rights and freedoms that are defined as fundamental rights and freedoms for adults, while for children, their limitation or even elimination has been legitimized.
Some of the perfectly legitimate restrictions on children’s rights that Franklin mentions are as follows: for example, political rights. Children are deprived of the right to vote. They cannot engage in politics. They cannot participate in political actions. Children and politics are considered mutually exclusive. Children are seen as incapable of skilfully using the tools to change and transform life. Their only connection to politics is being subjected to those policies. They are also at a disadvantage when you consider their economic rights. They lack financial power. If they have any, it is very limited. They cannot own property. They are legally excluded from the labour market. They lack the means to access and control cash reserves. Children are also seen as the property of their parents. They are an expensive investment requiring significant spending until the age of eighteen. Therefore, in a way, they are indebted to their parents and even to the state. Similarly, they are also treated as if they belong to the state. Children are assets that will ensure the continuity of the state. To give an example specific to Turkey: children will either constitute the generation of the “Ideal Turk” or a “vengeful, pious” generation. At school, children are subjected to the arbitrary authority of teachers. They may receive physical or non-physical punishments. They are the subject of certain secret files within the education system. And, children are obliged to attend these institutions. A similar situation applies to all closed institutional settings. Children in prisons, care homes, and dormitories must be disciplined, punished, housed, cared for, and raised under the authority of certain individuals. At home, children are under the constant surveillance of caregivers in the name of “discipline,” “development,” or “education.”1
Moreover, there are reasons and justifications for all of this. One of the reasons is the perception that children are always about the future. According to this perception, children, unlike adults, are beings whose “today” has been taken away. Childhood is a process that must be overcome as soon as possible, with the goal of reaching adulthood as an achievement. This process must pass quickly in order to become a good citizen, a good child, a good worker. Going through this process is like “upgrading status”. Consequently, their current rights and freedoms may be restricted so that they become a “good citizen,” “good child,” or “good worker” in the future. This is quite legitimate!
However, while this situation takes away children’s present, it makes both their real needs and their potential invisible.
But do children have rights that are not restricted, or at least rights whose “right to possess is accepted”? Of course, they do. However, to explain this clearly, it is necessary to address the prevailing perception of children within the existing economic and political order in the world and in Turkey.
Children are generally perceived as passive, weak, powerless beings in society who are in constant need of protection, valuable not today but in the future. This perception opens the door for adults, capital, and the state to benefit from children in various ways and dimensions and to establish domination over them.
When we look at the perception specific to Turkey, a more “hypocritical” situation stands out in addition to this general perception. While a child is simultaneously evaluated as “the most innocent”, “the purest”, “the most naive”, “powerless and in need of protection”, and even attributed “angelic” qualities with religious values, on the other hand, they can also be viewed as the “most dangerous!” being, i.e., a “terrorist!” for the state. This is why they can be killed or confined for years.
The provision of the “accepted rights to possess” for children in Turkey wavers between these two extreme perceptions. The state, capital, and adults always determine where to establish this perception according to “their own interests.” Sometimes deliberately, sometimes unconsciously… The result of this situation for children is a wide range of rights violations.
These include the exploitation of child labour; being subjected to abuse and violence while working; losing their lives in workplace homicides; sexual violence; being deprived of their freedoms; confinement; being unable to access their right to education and health in all its dimensions; neglect, exploitation, not being heard, and being rendered invisible… As one lists these, many examples come to mind for each one. And when we look at these violations, it is evident that none of them are isolated incidents.
…
A book was published a few months ago. This book, titled ‘Childism,’ was written by Elisabeth Young-Bruehl and translated into Turkish by Aksu Bora.
In the book, Bruehl states that these non-isolated, systematically occurring violations are actually related to prejudices against children, and she emphasizes that these prejudices are the sine qua non condition for ill-treatment toward children.
She adds that this prejudice is based on the “belief that they are property and can (and should) be controlled by adults, enslaved, and made invisible to meet adult needs.”
She explains that this existing but unnamed prejudice against children must be defined like racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination, and that these prejudices must be confronted.
Aksu Bora, the book’s translator, specifically chose to use the concept of “childism” to describe these prejudices. This is because she states and exemplifies that what children experience in Turkey is outright hostility.2
The incidents in state-run residential institutions or religious community houses, the fire in the girls’ dormitory in Aladağ, and the locked fire door discovered afterwards, the children who died at the foot of that door. Girls becoming pregnant at a young age, and the complete silence around these issues. The widespread nature of child pornography, yet the covering up and denial of this issue. Domestic violence, abuse, and neglect…
The examples given by Aksu Bora are indeed systematic, not isolated. Even a quick look at the news from recent months, unfortunately, makes this easily understood. The child who was hung on the wall at work because he brought the wrong screw. 3The boys who were subjected to violence in the dormitory allegedly run by the ‘’Süleymancılar’’.4 The two five-year-old children who were detained during Newroz, and the legal proceedings initiated against dozens of children who wanted to participate in Newroz.5 The case of a girl in the İsmailağa community who was married off at the age of 6 through an imam-sanctioned marriage and subjected to sexual violence every day for years.6 The death of 14-year-old Dicle Nur Selçuk due to an occupational homicide at a citrus packaging factory at 10:00 PM.7 The message sent by the principal of a middle school in Osmangazi to teachers, stating, “I kindly ask you to be sensitive about seating boys with boys and girls with girls.”8 According to the FİSA Child Rights Centre, at least 75 children died from preventable causes in October alone.9 The closure lawsuit filed against the Tarlabaşı Community Center, which has served children for many years.10
A quick glance over a broader period reveals very similar incidents, where only the names and places change, proving the point: We see Fatma Eraslan, who was neutralized; Muhammed and Orhan, 15, killed in Diyadin; Rabia Naz, whose killers were somehow not found; the expert who found the 6-year-old Efe, who died when a sink fell on him, guilty; 13-year-old Ahmet Yıldız, who was working in an illegal workplace and died when his head was caught in a machine whose sensor was deliberately broken by his boss for more profit; according to the Diyarbakır Bar Association’s report, 67 children killed in just the last 11 years by mine and war residue explosions and armoured vehicle collisions11; Wail El Suud, the 9-year-old Syrian child who committed suicide due to bullying; the public discussion of how Sıla, who was killed at the age of 16 due to male violence, met this man online; and the adults who mock Greta, one of the key subjects of climate activism globally, who has the courage to stand before governments at the UN and question their audacity.
If we were to elaborate a little further, we could point to many similar cases of abuse, violence, exploitation, and numerous violations suffered by children, showing that only the names and places have changed. Therefore, we are truly facing systemic “childism.”
So, what must we do to eliminate this hostility?
First, we must confront our own prejudice against children. Do we see them as “beings who have the right to have rights and freedoms” in every way?
And what about society, the state? Whose interest does it serve not to see them this way? The corporations, i.e., capital? Or oppressive, authoritarian fascist regimes?
Therefore, we must be vigilant about children being subjects with rights and freedoms. We must be careful when trying to understand the incidents we encounter involving children. We must not reproduce the existing hostility.
And, of course, we must demand the elimination of this hostility through various means and organize this demand. We must undertake this organization together with the children. We must both do it with them and create every climate possible to enable their organization. In other words, we must ensure the liberation of children.
I believe this will mean the liberation not only for children but for all of us.
Translated by: Eda Nur Bursalı
Reviewed by: Aslı Taşçı
- Bob Franklin. The Rights of Children. Translated by Alev Türker. Ayrıntı Yayınları, 1993. ↩︎
- See Bianet, “Meselenin Adı: Çocuk Düşmanlığı” (The Issue Is Childism), https://m.bianet.org/bianet/kitap/253417-meselenin-adi-cocuk-dusmanligi. ↩︎
- See Halk TV. “Çocuk işçiyi palangaya asan patron serbest bırakıldı” (The employer who hung the child worker on a hoist was released). https://halktv.com.tr/cocuk-isciyi-palangaya-asan-patron-serbest-birakildi-436365h ↩︎
- See Bianet. “Süleymancılar yurdunda şiddet: Görevliler gözaltına alındı” (Violence in the Süleymancılar dormitory: Staff were taken into custody). https://m.bianet.org/bianet/din/259633-suleymancilar-yurdunda-siddet-gorevli-gozaltina-alindi ↩︎
- See Bianet. “Diyarbakır Barosu: Newroz’da 5 yaşında iki çocuk gözaltına alındı” (Diyarbakır Bar Association: Two 5-year-old children were detained at Newroz). https://m.bianet.org/bianet/insan-haklari/259657-diyarbakır-barosu-newroz-da-5-yasinda-iki-cocuk-gozaltina-alindi ↩︎
- See Cumhuriyet. “İsmailağa cemaatinde çocuk istismarı: 6 yaşında evlendirdi, her gün cinsel istismara maruz bırakıldı” (Child abuse in the İsmailağa community: married at age 6, subjected to daily sexual abuse). https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/turkiye/ismailaga-cemaatinde-cocuk-istismari-6-yasinda-evlendirdi-her-gun-cinsel-istismara-maruz-birakildi-2008535 ↩︎
- See Evrensel. “Paketleme makinesine kapılan 14 yaşındaki çocuk işçi Dicle Nur oldu” (14-year-old child worker Dicle Nur was caught in a packaging machine). https://www.evrensel.net/haber/474364/paketleme-makinesine-kapilan-14-yasindaki-cocuk-isci-dicle-nur-oldu ↩︎
- See Bianet. “Ortaokul müdürünün oturma düzeni talimatına soruşturma” (Investigation into the middle school principal’s seating arrangement directive). https://m.bianet.org/bianet/print/259482-ortaokul-mudurunun-oturma-duzeni-talimatina-sorusturma ↩︎
- See CHM FISA. “Türkiye’de Çocuğun Yaşam Hakkı İhlalleri: Ekim Ayı Bilgi Notu” (Information Note on Violations of the Right to Life of the Child in Turkey: October). https://chm.fisa.org.tr/turkiyede-cocugun-yasam-hakki-ihlalleri-ekim-ayi-bilgi-notu/ ↩︎
- See Bianet. “Tarlabaşı Toplum Merkezi davası polis ablukasında görüldü” (The Tarlabaşı Community Center case was heard under police blockade). https://m.bianet.org/bianet/toplumsal-cinsiyet/269371-tarlabasi-toplum-merkezi-davasi-polis-ablukasinda-goruldu ↩︎
- Diyarbakır Barosu Çocuk Hakları Merkezi. “Baromuz Çocuk Hakları Merkezi’nce Hazırlanan Zırhlı Araç, Mayın ve Çatışma/Savaş Atıkları Kaynaklı Çocuk Hakkı İhlalleri Raporu Kamuoyuyla Paylaşıldı” (Report on Child Rights Violations Caused by Armored Vehicles, Mines, and Conflict/War Debris Prepared by Our Bar Association’s Child Rights Center Shared with the Public). https://www.diyarbakirbarosu.org.tr/haberler/baromuz-cocuk-haklari-merkezince-hazirlanan-zirhli-arac-mayin-ve-catisma-savas-atiklari-kaynakli-cocuk-hakki-ihlalleri-raporu-kamuoyuyla-paylasildi ↩︎