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THE OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TÜRKİYE 2018 ANNUAL REPORT

Following examinations and research conducted by our Institution, it was found that there
were minor psychical injuries which would be recovered by simple medical intervention
and that these minor injuries resulted from the convict’s resistance to body search which is
generally conducted for all the convicts during their transfer. However, our institution issued
a Recommendation to the Ministry of Justice to carry out works on increasing accountability
regarding claims of battery in the areas where there are no security cameras at the prisons, to
carefully examine the applications regarding “torture, maltreatment, and any other act contrary
to human dignity”, and to take necessary measures to carefully record injuries resulting from
battery including the injuries which may be recovered through simple medical intervention.

In another application, the applicant complained that minors were illegally being kept in
an overcrowded prison which exceeded its capacity, that this constituted a great risk for the
children as well as for the officials on duty as the prison was not being monitored 24 hours a
day and adequately; therefore, he asked for the examination of this mater and the prevention
of any potential danger.

It was found that the mentioned prison was characterized as a “closed penal execution
institution for adults” which were built as a solution for overcrowded prisons according to the
Law on the Execution of Penalties and Security Measures No. 5275, that minors in this prison
were kept in the parts which were allocated for them, and that necessary measures were taken
for them; therefore, this situation was contrary to the Law No. 5275.

However, it was also found that totally 344 minor remand prisoners were kept in this prison
having a capacity to keep 252 persons, and that the occupancy rate was around 136% at this
institution. Therefore, based on the principle to observe the best interest of the child, our
Institution issued a Recommendation to the Ministry of Justice to immediately transfer the
children to another institution, and if this was not possible, to allocate additional block for the
children, and to speed up legal and administrative steps in order to strengthen modern child
justice system.

k) Women’s Rights
In 2018, the applications in the field of women’s rights have mostly been filed regarding the
following matters:

◊ equality of opportunities for women and men,
◊ violations of rights for the parent who doesn’t hold the custody in establishing personal
relationship with their child and visitation,

◊ requests for social benefits of a mother having triplet,
◊ providing transportation for women workers working at night shift,

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