ISTANBUL - State Minister Guldal Aksit said on Monday that regulations about children and family had priority in the government programme.
Holding a news conference regarding the international campaign started by UNICEF namely ''All Children Have Equal Rights,'' Aksit said that the criticisms about Turkey regarding the issue were constructive. ''Because the government shares the same view, we did many things, we are trying to do new things, but there are very important steps which we need to take,'' Aksit said.
State Minister Aksit noted that he particularly shared the views about courts of children, adding that ''the studies in the coming period will speed up.''
UNICEF Director General Carol Bellamy said in her part that the most important problem in Turkey was poverty, adding that poverty caused isolation of children. Bellamy stated that there was no one way for solution. Bellamy said the most important solution method was to give qualified education to all children, commenting that the Turkish government launched intensive efforts for the solution of the problems. The first one was to provide books free of charge as announced by the government, she said, adding the second one was the efforts launched to end the differences among children in accession to education.
EU Commission's Representative to Turkey Hansjoerg Kretschmer said in his part that there was a series of problems about rights of children, adding that the government undertook studies about these issues.
The thing that lied on the root of the problem was poverty, he said, adding that lack of education and poverty were related issues. Lack of education also supported poverty, he noted.
Kretschmer stated that Turkey would be able to cope with all those problems in the near future.
(Öª-AÖ) 16.06.2003