Country of origin information report Turkey March 2007

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23.30 The EC 2006 report noted that:
“In the field of social protection, Parliament adopted legislation on social security reform in May and June 2006, providing for a complete overhaul of the Turkish social security system. This will be simplified and bureaucracy reduced, benefits-liabilities will be equal for everybody, free healthcare will be provided to all children under 18. The reform aims to ensure the long-term financial stability of the social security system and to regulate assistance to the poorest. Upgrading of the administrative capacity of the newly established Social Security Institution is ongoing. The inspection capacity of the social security system requires strengthening.” [71a] (p53)
See also Section 25.01 Medical Issues
Torture and mistreatment under detention
23.31 The Child Rights Information Network (CRIN), in an article posted in April 2006, emphasised that:
“A total of 202 children had been detained in relation to the incidents in Diyarbakir between March 28 and April 1, 2006 and 91 of them were arrested after their initial custody period. As result of an appeal made by the Diyarbakir Bar Association, 34 of the imprisoned children were later released. The Bar Association Center had disclosed then that 95 percent of the children detained by security forces had been subject to torture and mistreatment.” [94b]
23.32 BIA News Center reported in July 2006, ‘34 Torture Investigations in Diyarbakir’ that:
“A total of 34 preparatory investigations have been launched against police officers in Diyarbakir related to allegations of torture and mistreatment of children and adults during and after the March 28-April 1 disturbances in the city this year. Diyarbakir Bar Association Children Rights Center lawyer Cengiz Analay welcomed the investigations and told Bianet that even if with a delay it appears for now that what should be done against torture and mistreatment is being done. But the 24 torture files that have been opened should not end up inconclusive like the others. Analay said that as the city Bar Association they are following this issue closely and are waiting for the result of the 34 investigations with interest. He said they insisted that torturers not be left unpunished.” [102e]
23.33 As reported by BIA News Center in September 2006, ‘Lawyer Investigated to Reveal Child Torture’:
“The Izmir Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation against attorney Nalan Erkem who in 2003, as an executive of the city Bar Association Group to Prevent Torture, publicly disclosed the existence of torture and mistreatment of children held at the local Buca prison. Erkem had passed on information and allegations to the press related to incidences of torture of children at the Buca prison children’s ward, their denied access to legal counsel and refusals by prison authorities to requests of transfers.” [102c]
23.34 In the Human Rights overview of Turkey 2005, Human Rights Watch noted that

“In January 2005, the Turkish parliamentary human rights commission reported that, during a visit to Saray Rehabilitation Center, a psychiatric institution in Ankara, it had discovered children tied to their beds and imprisoned naked in cold rooms. Mental Disability Rights International reported in September that psychiatric hospitals in Istanbul and Izmir were inflicting electroconvulsive treatment (ECT) on patients without muscle relaxants and anesthesia. The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture had already condemned this painful and dangerous practice in a 1997 visit to Turkey. The report also described how children were subjected to ECT, and had their hands and feet bound to their beds for long periods.” [9e]