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The Callers of Justice for Children, an advocacy group for children's rights, is lobbying in Parliament for changes to the Anti-Terror Law, which currently allows children to be tried and sentenced as adults when they are in conflict with the law. The group, composed of human rights activists, children's rights advocates and bar association representatives, is trying to convince deputies from various political parties of the incompatibility of the Anti-Terror Law with the Constitution and international agreements, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The group has also presented a proposal to deputies envisaging amendments to the Anti-Terror Law in favour of children. An amendment to Article 9 of the Anti-Terror Law allows children between the ages of 16 and 18 to be tried as adults in high criminal courts. Another amendment to Article 13 of the Anti-Terror Law made it impossible for these children's sentences to be postponed or for a prison sentence to be commuted to another form of punishment. According to a Human Rights Association (İHD) report that was released this week, since these amendments were made to the Anti-Terror Law, 1,572 children have stood trial -- 422 of them for the dissemination of propaganda for a terrorist organisation and 413 of them for the establishment and leadership of terrorist organisations. The report notes that the number of children currently standing trial for crimes related to the Anti-Terror Law is not clear, but in Diyarbakır alone, 305 children are in conflict with the Anti-Terror Law. In the same report, the İHD suggests that since the Anti-Terror Law defines covering ones face during a demonstration as a form of propaganda for terrorist organisations, children who are taught doing this are arrested on charges of terrorism. The report also states that children arrested for throwing stones at security forces stand trial and face prison sentences of up to 25 years if convicted. In its lobbying efforts, the Callers of Justice for Children has also highlighted the fact that children between the ages of 12 and 15 are protected by regulations such as the postponement of sentences or the commutation of prison sentences to other forms of punishment in some instances, but are tried as adults in certain cases. “In short, children between the ages of 12 and 18, when they are accused of crimes related to the Anti-Terror Law -- the ones between 12 and 15 partially, the ones between the ages of 16 and 18 totally -- are subject to conditions that completely neglect the fact that they are children,” the group argues in documents it has prepared. The group also underlines that not only during trials and sentencing, but also during the implementation of detention and arrest procedures, children have to face conditions that are not in accordance with children's rights. Similarly, the İHD in its report discusses claims of ill-treatment toward children and demands that security forces dealing with demonstrations should be from the police's children's department if children are involved. The İHD's other suggestions are as follows: “The detained children should be taken to the children's department of the police instead of the anti-terror department; their families should be informed immediately; the duration of their detention should be as short as possible; and experts on children should be consulted during the whole process.” Further information
pdf: http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=176999&bol...Association: Today's Zaman