News about “Amnesties for child abuse perpetrators/rapists” has been drawing my attention recently. From Diyarbakır to Balıkesir, from Ankara to Mardin, there is a common voice against this draft bill across Turkey. As a psychologist who dealt with cases of child abuse at the time, I would like to write a few lines and say "Child abuse is untenable!" FULL STOP!
I was on a South American trip for two months between November 21 and January 22. I tried to follow the agenda of Turkey in this period as far as possible. Again, many women killed by men, economic problems, unemployment and suicides were on our agenda. However, the most important agenda that attracted my attention the most and which I thought I should write on it at length was the news about
“Amnesties for child abuse perpetrators/rapists”.
Let's go back to 2016, when this issue first appeared. In 2016, the government introduced a similar draft bill in preparations to declare amnesty for child abuse perpetrators. This draft bill was revolving around
“in case of the marriage of the victim and the perpetrator in the crime of sexual abuse, the decision to postpone announcement of the sentence and to postpone the execution of the sentence, if any, regardless of the conditions in Article 231 in Turkish Criminal Code.” Many women, human rights, democratic mass organizations as well as a large number of conscientious individuals, academics or parents stood against it and then draft bill was withdrawn after many protests. The Prime Minister of the period, Binali Yıldırım and Minister of Internal Affairs Bekir Bozdağ at the time claimed that the law proposal on "sexual abuse" crimes would not mean "amnesty for rape".
I have a link for those who want to learn more
