Bill on ‘stone-throwing children’ not sufficient, says BDP

A bill on ‘stone-throwing children’ was sent from the Parliament’s Justice Commission to subcommittee on Wednesday.
The bill is part of the Justice and Development Party, so called Kurdish initiative, a package of proposals aimed to solve the Kurdish question. In reality so far the proposals have proved to be quite vague if not a cosmetic exercise at all. If the bill is passed, the AKP say, the 300 children arrested during the rallies would be released and would go on trial as minors instead of members of a terrorist organization. But BDP Istanbul Deputy Sebahat Tuncel said that the regulations insufficient. Tuncel added that the BDP and the Advocates for Justice for Children platform, find the bill insufficient and unable to meet the demands of the families are. “Society cannot be free – remarked MP Tuncel – in a country where the children aren’t free”.
BDP Hakkari Deputy Hamit Geylani said that the bill is “far from abolishing the problems with order”, while speaking for Advocates for Justice for Children, Arif Akkaya said that children were being arrested without notifying the parents, jailed in other provinces and thus prevented from being released. “Children are being tortured in jail,” said Akkaya. Mehmet Atak, speaking for the Platform said that “Turkey, while concerned with Palestinian children, should not overlook the 4,000 children in its own country.”
The subcommittee will finalize its work by Monday, before it sends the bill to Parliament’s General Assembly to be voted on.
Criticism to the bill came also from the opposition parties, the CHP (Republican People’s Party) and the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party).

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