New York-based the Journalists and Writers Foundation (JWF) has launch a social media campaign on Twitter with the hashtag #Freedom4Children via JWF`s official account (@JWFoundation_) following the release of its new report titled “The State of Turkey’s Children: Victims of Unlawfulness” on Monday.
According to the report, which has revealed a disturbing pattern of human rights abuses against innocent children in Turkey and abroad, 668 children under the age of 6 are in jails across Turkey with their mothers as of the end of August 2017 and hundreds of children living abroad are born stateless because the Turkish consulates do not provide them with passports or national IDs.
The report also stated that the Turkish authorities have begun to remove children from their relatives if the parents are accused of being the supporters of a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
The report highlights and raises awareness about the plight of thousands of children in Turkey and abroad subject to discrimination on several grounds prohibited by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The reports also discusses the current situation, intentional violations of the rights of the children in Turkey and offers recommendations to the government of Turkey.
In a press release posted in the foundation’s official website, the JWF has called on all local and international media to continue raising awareness on the State of Turkey’s Children who have become the victims of unlawfulness. JWF has also called on civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders to address the human rights violations against children and mothers in Turkey under the autocratic rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
