Child staying in Diyarbakır prison with his mother denied medication

B.B., a child who was staying with his imprisoned mother in Diyarbakır Women’s Closed Prison, was not given any medication.

According to the information received, B.B. had wounds in various parts of his body because he could not take his medication. In addition, his right to play, which was in the hands of the psychosocial services, was denied.

According to a report by the Right to Life association released in October 2021, there were a total of 345 children under the age of 6 accompanying their mothers in Turkish prisons.

According to the report, children are traumatized by strip-searches. They are not well fed and don’t receive sufficient medical care. They also have difficulty getting time to play.

Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) Secretary-General Coşkun Üsterci said the courts need to take into account the economic and social conditions of mothers with children under 6. 

According to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Children, “In cases where the parents or other primary caregivers commit an offence, alternatives to detention should be made available and applied on a case-by-case basis, with full consideration of the likely impacts of different sentences on the best interests of the affected child or children.”

The number of children accompanying their mothers in prison skyrocketed in Turkey in the aftermath of a coup attempt in July 2016.