FYI.

Turkish Court Prosecutes Duchess of York for Exposing Child Abuse in State Institution

A Turkish court has charged Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, with acquiring footage and violating the privacy of children residing in a Turkish state-run orphanage, after she participated in an undercover documentary exposing abuse and neglect in the facility, which aired on ITV in 2008. The trial, which may result in a sentence of up to 22 ½ years in prison, began in early May 2012 in Ankara without the duchess after Britain refused to extradite her.

The Turkish government argues that the duchess, through her participation in the documentary, has violated the privacy of the children, most of whom have intellectual and physical disabilities. The documentary was created to show that the basic human rights of the children are being violated in the orphanages. In 2005, Disability Rights International (DRI), an advocacy organization, released a report about this issue entitled "Behind Closed Doors: Human Rights Abuses in Psychiatric Facilities, Orphanages and Rehabilitation Centers in Turkey." The report documented starving children who were unable to feed themselves due to their disabilities and were often unfed. According to the report, when children became ill, staff ceased to bathe them and provide them with medical treatment, and they were left in their cribs to die. Children were tied permanently into beds and immobile children spent their whole lives lying in cribs. Children and teenagers of all ages and sexes were hosed down in groups. Babies who scratched or hit had their hands covered by plastic bottles. The children were subjected to skin sutures, shock treatments, and teeth extractions without the benefit of anesthesia. One doctor, and other staff members, told DRI official that children with disabilities "don't feel pain."

Ferguson and ITV documented many of these abuses, and Turkey now seeks to charge her with a severe penalty. DRI has documented similar human rights violations of children in institutions in various countries and has found that governmental authorities who do not allow photography and video documentation on the grounds of "protecting privacy" are actually seeking to protect themselves from exposure. They deny the residents of the institutions fundamental choices about their own lives, and in some cases rights violations are at issue, as in this instance. International human rights law guarantees children with disabilities protection from torture and abuse. Children with disabilities enclosed within the walls of an institution have no choices, no control over their lives, and no chance of being heard. The Duchess of York participated in a documentary to make them visible, and for that the Turkish government seeks to prosecute her.

Full Story: Laurie Ahern, Nations Must Protect Their Children, Not Their Reputations, The Washington Post, May 20, 2012, available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nations-must-protect-their-children-not-their-reputations/2012/05/20/gIQA6S51dU_story.html

Source: The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter, Vol 9, No. 5