Convention on the Rights of Children
All the children of
the world who lives in countries are
under legislative obligation to protect the rights of children today.
Each country which has ratified the Convention,
is responsible, primarily on the part of the State. State parties are
under obligation to take all the precautions to assist parents and all
the institutions, which have a responsibility in fulfilling their
obligations, pertaining to children. State parties have ratified to
implement those and, in turn, been under obligation.
Turkiye has been
among the first States parties to the Convention upon the event that
Turgut Özal, who was the President at that period has signed the
Convention on the Rights of Children which has been open to signature,
for the first time, at “World Summit for Children” held at United
Nations
between September 29-30, 1989. Turkey ratified the Convention making
reservations on articles 17, 29 and 30 with the right to interpret those
articles in accordance with the spirit of the Treaty of Lausanne and the
relevant articles of Turkish Constitution.
Convention on the Rights of Children has appeared in the official
gazette no
22184 and been incorporated into
legislation and become a part of national law with the law no 4058.
Turkiye, after signing
the Convention, still, has not reached the level where conditions were
improved according to the rules of the
Convention. Although the government has a responsibility and an
obligation to review norms of national laws and to identify rules which
are not in compliance with the Convention and do necessary changes,
these are not completed until now. The legislations focusing to the
child’s rights are not improved. It appears that those changes have not
been dealt with adequately in 8 years until today. Although there are
many changes that must be done urgently, especially in Civil Law, Labour
Law, Criminal Law and on the children in need of special protective
measures, the initiatives carried out on these issues appear not to be
adequate.