How was the experience of children

in children’s right changed since

your parent’s time and what impact
these changes had on the
experience of being a child today?

Being a child today EEC105

Ela Boga 0021083219

13.12.2010
A COMPARISON OF CHILD ISSUES AFFECTING ACHIEVEMENT IN TURKEY AND

THE UNITED KINGDOM

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the first binding

universal treaty dedicated solely to the protection and promotion of children’s rights. It was

accepted by the General Assembly in 1989. The CRC is the most widely ratified human rights

treaty with 190 ratifications. Somalia and the USA are the only two countries which have not

ratified the CRC (Fortin, 2009). It was ratified by the UK in 1991 and came into force in UK in

January 1992; it was ratified in Turkey in 1994. The CRC has 54 Articles, 40 of which provide

permanent rights for the children. The United Nation Convention on the Rights of the child

states that “a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under

the law applicable to the child, majority of attained earlier” (Fortin, 2009:753). There are

four general principles in the CRC; Survival Rights, Membership Rights, Protection Rights and

Empowerment Rights (Fortin, 2009).

The survival rights do not include only the right to life itself, but also the right to all those

rights which sustain life, such as the rights to a sufficient standard of living and to health

care. Membership rights include those which treat the child as a member of his or her

community and family. Protection rights guard the child against abuses of power by

individuals and the state. Finally, empowerment rights secure a respect for children as

effective members of the communities in which they live, through protecting their freedom

of thought and conscience and encouraging their capacity for self determination. (Fortin,

2009:41)

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 I intend to specifically look at approaches to how a children’s rights in Turkey and the

United Kingdom and how this is achieved. Therefore, I will focus overall an aspects of

Children’s rights in both countries and one serious matter relevant to children’s rights; child

marriages.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that any marriages

under age of 18 are child marriages. The main reasons for child marriage are economic

issues, domestic violence, pre-marital pregnancy or traditional life style runs about obeying

husbands at an early age. However, within these reasons it can be argued that economical

issues also play a crucial role. Thus, when we look at mostly which income group child

marriages are happening from we can clearly see that it is mostly occuring in poor families.

The World Bank and United Nations’ research shows that child marriage and a country’s’

development directly impact upon each other (Serozan, 2005).

The role of Islam also has a big impact on child marriage. Turkey has a typically

male-dominated community. Men in general do not want to send women to school, they

want them remain uneducated and illiterate. As a result, men make their women believe

the teaching of the Quran and are constantly directing women with Islamic rules. Turkey has

a republican regime which has forbidden child marriage, but which remains legal in Islamic

Law, but still in Turkey, one out of every three marriages is a child marriage. Men in Turkey

remain powerful and make women fearful (Serozan, 2005).

In these days in Turkey the most important social issue is child marriage. In

underdeveloped countries poor families, to reduce poverty in their families, marry off their

young daughters to older men. Most often these children would be the second or third wife

of their husbands.

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 Turkey is an upper middle income country even though we can see child marriages

happening in a high rate. Most particularly in the South Eastern Anatolia Region girls as

young is the age of 10 are married off with old men in exchange for $1000 or $2000. In

Turkey we do not imply legal marriage when we say child marriage; it implies sociological or

religious marriages. For instance, these types of marriages lean on religion, one in which the

Imam officiates. Turkish Civil Law states in Article 124 that “female or male who is under

the age of 17 cannot get married legally. Under age of 18, they require the approval of their

parents. In extraordinary circumstances, marriage may be permitted at 16 with the approval

of a judge the minimum age at which a child can be deemed to have consented to sexual

intercourse is 15” (Onur, 2007).

In this context, in Turkish Law, the concept of child marriages is permitted depending

on different circumstances. In fact, Turkish Civil Law states under 17, CRC states under 18

and Turkish Criminal Law states age of 15 will be accepted as a child marriage.

Incompatibility between these laws leaves many families who live traditionally and want to

fight against child marriage without any legal framework (Onur, 2007).

The overall tendency for men in the Turkish community is to get further education,

complete military service then have a job and get married as a last thing; this means men

often get married at late age. On the other hand, girls in the Turkish Community have to

finish their education or leave it incomplete for marriage. The Convention on the Rights of

the Child in Article 28 states that; parties recognize the right of the child to education and

with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they

shall, in particular “make primary education compulsory and available free to

all”(Fortin,2009:762).

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I would like to give a personal example on this issue to understand deeply how child

marriage can change lives completely.

I was 16 when I forced to marry by my family to one of our relatives’ friends. I was in

high school in the last term before my graduation. At this time, I did not even know what

marriage involved and what I needed to do after I get married. When my family told me that

they wanted me to marry that man I disagreed because I was only in high school and

wanted to finish studying and carry on to higher education. We lived in a big city but in a

small community. My father never believed in girl’s education; for him a girl needs to be

educated as a housewife only, marry in early age and remain a house wife all their life. Even

though, I completely disagreed with get this married to a stranger, my family made me say

yes for this marriages. I got engaged in the school summer holiday and 6 months after our

engagement we got married with my parent’s approval. I was 16 and he was 23.

I had to leave my hometown, all my friends and family and move to another city and

a new life with a stranger. I had horrible times in my marriage. My husband never treated

me as a wife, for him I was the person who needed to stay at home all the time and do

house duties, cooking and etc. I had to accept everything he said and he did. He had affairs

during our marriage and I had to accept it.

As I grew up I found I had a voice to stop him from what he was doing because it was

completely wrong; every time I tried to speak to about his behaviour he muzzled me with

physical violence and verbal abuse. I was married for 6 years, then decided to divorce him

but it was not easy at all. My family did not want me to get divorced because of our religion

and my family’s morals. Also if you are divorced woman in Turkey, you are ultimately

labelled as a dirty woman and my father did not want to hear unpleasant rumours about his

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daughter’s marriage. I am Muslim and in Islamic laws you should have only one husband for

all your life and in any circumstances you do not have the right to change this rule but I did

and I knew that it was going to be very difficult. I divorced and went back to my hometown

and family 6 years after of my marriage. Although I wanted to go back to study it was very

difficult for me after I left school to learn everything again but I was very determined to get

my life back and not to live in that narrow minded environment. I did everything I could

possibly do to go to university. I came to the UK in 2005 as an au pair and went to language

school to learn and improve my English. My dream was to go to university and finally I am

now. It was a very long, difficult and complicated process but I managed to get this point

and gained my independence and got my life back.

In the past, I did not know that children have rights. In the Turkish community, a

parent’s power has a big role in their children’s life. I personally do not think that many

children or families were aware of CRC. Nowadays, it has changed dramatically in Turkey.

Many families are, and young people are aware of children’s rights. The media has a big

impact on this issue. Being a child today certainly is different to what it was in the past.

Over the last few years some organizations such as The Association in Support of

Contemporary Living (Cagdas Yasami Destekleme Dernegi) in Turkey has big impact on child

marriages and child poverty. They have big campaigns all around the country to help

children and their development. One of the most recent and biggest campaigns gets a young

child who lives in rural areas into the schooling system. The CYDD’s aim also is to teach

other family members about children’s health and development. These campaigns reduce

child marriages it also helps young children to go into the schooling system. UNICEF in

Turkey is also working with and for children and their families to ensure effective

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implementation of social and economic policies for the reduction of poverty and inequality

in Turkey by 2010. Their objective is to encourage and support improvement in of quality

basic social services for children, women and their families especially those in the most

defenceless social groups. (Unicef, 2006).

In my opinion, child marriage irrationally affects girls, removing them from family

and friends, stealing them of their childhood, exposing them to domestic violence and

compromising their development and their educational, social and professional

opportunities. Child marriage often leads to early and endemic pregnancies, increasing the

risks of maternal and child mortality. To reduce child marriages the government needs to

focus on the quality of education especially for those who live in poverty. Education and the

schooling system itself will help young children and their families to minimise early

marriages and social exclusion. The Convention on the Rights of the Child states in Articles

33, that children deserve protection from economic or sexual or other forms of exploitation,

and from illicit drugs and trafficking (Fortin, 2009, 763). Young people in the UK are allowed

to marry without requiring the consent of a parent, guardian or court when they reach the

age of eighteen years. Under the age of eighteen, and as long as the child is sixteen or

seventeen, parental consent is required.

Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights allows men and women to

marry as long as they are of ‘marriageable age.’ The fact that the UK does not allow children

to marry under the age of sixteen is not an annulment on their human rights, because the

Article allows member states to provide their minimum age for marriage ( Lawparents, 2010).

Early marriage is often comprehended as the only option for girls and is often seen

by parents of young girls as a means of securing both their own and their daughter's future.

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Child marriage is an issue that cannot be solved in division as it is results from a complexity

of social, cultural and economic measurement and pervasive gender discrimination. The

causes and consequences of child marriage are fundamentally linked, including girl's lack of

autonomy and low levels of education, poor health status, poverty and overall low socio-

economic status.

Repeated studies have shown the important role that education must play in efforts

to extinguish child marriage. Research by UNICEF shows that the more education a girl

receives, the less likely she is to be married as a child. Improving access to education and

abolishing gender gaps in education are therefore important strategies for ending the

practice of child marriage (Unicef, 2010).

As the UK is a developed country child marriage does not happen very often unless

within immigrant communities. In the United Kingdom high rates of immigrants live with

cultural diversity. They all live in their traditional cultures and want to carry on their cultures

even though they live in different country.

The recent and biggest problem in the United Kingdom is not child marriage, it is

teenage pregnancy. “Teenage pregnancy is formally defined as a pregnancy in a young

woman who will not reach her 20th birthday before the expected birth, regardless of

whether the woman is married or is legally an adult (age 14 to 21, depending on the

country) (Wikipedia, 2010)

Teenage Pregnancy is one of the problems in today’s society in the United Kingdom.

Some of the causes of early pregnancy among teenagers are lack of education especially

sexual education, poverty, problems with their family. Economic freedom, free lifestyle and

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lack of morality are also reasons for teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom. Fewer

people believe in Christianity and this is not enough to make community powerful enough

to set rules about marriages or teenage pregnancy.

The media also has a big impact on children’s education. Many television shows are

based on sexual life, popular culture and same is music also based on sexual objects. Lack of

education among teenagers should be given priority; I agree that sexual education should

be learned in school. To make those young children aware of the problem in early age

means the problem might disappear (Teenagepregnancyinformation, 2008).

In my opinion governments should look forward on how to resolve this issue.

Teenagers should be educated with this sort of problem, especially those teenagers who are

already sexually active. At the same time, parents need to give their young children

information about sexual life and possible consequences if they have an active sexual life.

Firstly we looked at Turkey’s social issues such as child marriages and young girl’s

education and then looked at similar issues such as teenage pregnancy in United Kingdom.

Ultimately, we see that both countries do not have the same problems. In Turkey child

marriages come from economic issues, domestic violence, religion also from traditional

family life. On the contrary, in United Kingdom it is based on free lifestyle, economic

freedom from government and lack of early sexual education.

The convention on the Rights of the Child states in article 13, “The child shall have

the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and

impart information and ideas of all kind, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in

print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice” (Fortin, 2009:756).

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 In Article 32 states that; “States parties recognize the right of the child to be

protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be

hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or

physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development” (Fortin, 2009:763).

In this essay firstly, I have looked at United Nation Convention on the Rights of the

Child in general. Secondly, I explained the status of children’s rights in Turkey and the

United Kingdom. Turkey and the United Kingdom have both the ratified United Nation

Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. Lastly, I focused on a serious matter in Turkey

which is child marriage. It is a big social issue in Turkey. In the past, this issue has been

recognised the government and society but hardly anything done until the last few years.

There are a number of non-governmental organizations in Turkey such as foundations,

associations and civic initiatives which aim to undertake social responsibilities on a voluntary

basis and have these been increasing recently. These organizations help society to reduce

social issues such as child marriage. These organizations focused on education especially

young girl’s education in rural areas. It leaves dramatically reduced child marriages in

Turkey. At the present time, parents are more aware of education and children are aware of

their rights.

In the United Kingdom I looked at similar issues; teenage pregnancy is one of the

most important and alarming issues in today's Britain. Poverty and low educational

achievement are key factors for teenage pregnancy. The lack of education on safe sex, from

parents, schools, or otherwise, is a cause of teenage pregnancy. Many teenagers are not

taught about methods of birth control and how to deal with peers who pressure them into

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having sex before they are ready. To reduce teenage pregnancy, parents should take a big

step and educate their young children. The latest government’s decision on teenage

pregnancy is to encourage young mothers to go back to school if they do not, they will lose

their childcare. I think that the Government's initiative is a step in the right direction.

Teenage mothers are not often equipped with the maturity or the sense of obligation to

someone other than oneself, because you can still be very much a child at such a young age.

The government is offering a chance for teenage mothers to develop themselves both

academically, vocationally and individually - which in the long run will be in the child's best

interests.

I personally believe that the different issues in both countries could solve with

education of child and education of parents.

REFERENCES

Alderson, P. (2000) Young Children’s Right –Exploring Beliefs, Principles and Practice. United

Kingdom: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Limited.

Fottrell, D. (2000) Revisiting Children’s Rights – 10 years of the UN Convention on the Rights

of the Child. The Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.

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Fortin, J. (2009) Children’s Rights and the Developing Law. 3rd Edition. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Hart,S., Cohen, C.P., Erickson, M.F., Flekkoy,M. (2001). Children's Rights in Education.
London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd.
Invernizzi, A. and Williams, J. (2008) Children and Citizenship. London: Sage Publications.

International justice for children (2008) Belgium: Council of Europe Publishing.

Serozan, R. (2005) Children’s Law in Turkey. Istanbul: Yaylacik Publications.

House of Lords, House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights. (2003) The UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child. London: The Stationary Office Limited.

Onur B. (2007) Child, History and Society in Turkey. Ankara: Imge Publications.

The Association in Support of Contemporary Living (1989-2010) The Children’s

Development Available at: http://www.cydd.org.tr/?sayfa=proje (Accessed: 8th December
2010 ).

Unicef (2010) http://www.unicef.org.tr (Accessed: 6th December).

http://www.lawandparents.co.uk (2000-2010) (Accessed: 8th December).

http://teenagepregnancyinformation.wordpress.com (2008) (Accessed: 8th December).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_pregnancy (2010) (Accessed: 8th December).

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