Turkey determined to crack down on child molestation

Elaborating on the Turkish government’s taking up legal cautions to prevent sexual harassment from which the children in Turkey have been suffering, the minister said all the efforts spent on this topic had the goal of maximising the children rights’ position. "As a member of the modern world, Turkey is determined to set her will against the harassment issue. Our country will enhance and promote what has been done against those events so far," said Aksit. Underlining the fact that there are 26 million people in Turkey in the age group of 0-18 and the "homeless or working child" concept has become a central issue day by day, Aksit said child molesting stood for a big danger to those children and added that those who had been taken under protection refers to 12 percent of the Turkish children.

Stating Turkey adopted the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the rights of Children, on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography on May 13, 2002, Aksit pointed out Turkey’s will to promote children’s well-being within the framework of international agreements and EU harmonisation efforts. "One of the main goals of our government is to maximise the respect paid towards children rights. The implementation of the National Program provides the biggest steps in the field in the sense that it brings about certain legal arrangements which heavily punish sexual harassment of children and concern rehabilitation processes for molested children," said Aksit.