International "Individual Disarmament" Symposium

According to the records of the United Nations, five hundred thousand people each year die as a result of attacks made with simple arms.

Total of 1352 people died in Turkey as a result of armed attacks in 1998. In the same way, 2288 people were sentenced for opposition to the Firearms Law number 6136 in 1999.....

Umut Foundation, which was founded in 1993 in this long lasting dangerous scene and after a very tragic event, continues its activities in cooperation with the Individual Disarmament Commission, which was founded by the Istanbul Bar with the same objective in 1998, in an attempt to prevent the individual armament and to provide public with the related information and to make people become conscious of this matter. Having been impressed by these activities, the International Open Society Institute provided support to the International Symposium on Individual Disarmament held in Turkey on January 18-19, 2002.

Outstanding scientists from big cities such as Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, and from countries such as United States of America, South Africa, Canada, Brazil, and Scotland and also representatives and students from Directorate of Public Security and Provincial Directorate of National Education participated in the International Symposium on Individual Disarmament.

During the Symposium, individual armament has been dealt with from its psychological, sociological, health (public health), criminal medicine, education, media and law points of view, and as a result some solutions have been proposed. These solution proposals are revealed as a final declaration:

• In order to obtain accurate records and correct solutions, the data related to the crimes committed with firearms should be collected continuously by the police forces in an accurate and complete way and they should be kept in a center to be determined by Ministry of Internal Affairs. The police forces should be trained in this subject and the public should be enlightened to notify the events to the competent authorities. In addition, the public establishments such as the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Public Health, Justice, National Education, and the universities and civil society establishments should carry out data collection, analysis and interpretation activities on crimes committed with firearms through an inter-sector collaboration at regular intervals. 
• A harmony should be established between the Turkish Criminal Code (TCC) and Law number 6136 on individual firearms (Arguments related to TCC 189 should come to an end) and it should be observed that the required amendments are being made effectively. 
• In order to make the punishments to be dissuasive, amnesties that interfere in the operation of the civil state should be avoided. 
• The punishments for having and carrying unlicensed firearms should be made effective and dissuasive (such as removing from the scope of prepayment); the conditions for obtaining licenses for firearms for the purpose of having in stock should be made stricter; an upper age limit and a waiting period should be stipulated; the term of the license should be decreased down to 2 years; taxes should be collected from license holders every year and some portion of these taxes collected should be distributed among victims of armed crimes and to the civil society organizations that work for individual disarmament; 
• Specific centres that include specialized professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, family physicians, neurologists, criminal medicine specialists, eye disease specialists and orthopaedists should be opened for the health examinations required for licensing the firearms, and this kind of centres should work in coordination with the branch directorates of security responsible for firearms in secrecy. Moreover, scientific studies should also be conducted within these centres and related services should be provided through rehabilitation programs for the risk groups, age limits, attitudes and behaviours of the firearm license applicants and for the problems that are detected during examination.
•  Lock and safe systems should be supplied and introduced for firearms in order to prevent firearm accidents.
• Efficient mechanisms should be established for use in selling and observing the noise pistols, gas pistols, and blank-cartridge pistols; 
• A nationwide campaign should be initiated to confiscate the toy arms; 
• The courses of "social psychology" and "ethics of publication and broadcasting" should be added to the curriculum of the press and broadcasting departments in universities. 
• Violence element should not be used in TV series, news bulletins, news programmes, films and particularly in the children’s programs on TV; in addition, the scriptwriters should include the individual disarmament consciousness in their scenarios; 
• Advertising campaigns should be organized against individual armament and particularly related messages should be communicated to the young people. 
• The international meetings should be repeated in areas where the individual armament is widespread;
• The local media should also spread these activities in their localities; 
• "Controlling the anger and violence" course given by the psychological advisers to the students at schools within the scope of Life Skills Program should also be given to the teachers; 
• The Individual Disarmament Commission should be established in order to organize the Umut Foundation nationwide and to make the other Bars contribute to these activities in accordance with the recommendation decision dated May 2001 of the general assembly of the Union of Turkish Bars; 

All these demands will be communicated to the Government, Turkish National Grand Assembly, Higher Education Council, Higher Commission of Radio and Television Broadcasting, Press Council, Association of Journalists, and other establishments by the Istanbul Bar and Umut Foundation and they will be observed.
We hereby announce to the public with respect,

Chairman of the Istanbul Bar 
LAWYER YÜCEL SAYMAN