Turkey backs down on child bride pardons

Turkey has backtracked on plans to pardon statutory rapists who marry their underage victims after the proposal sparked anger both at home and abroad.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim withdrew the legislation for redrafting a few hours before it was due to appear before parliament on Tuesday.

The bill, introduced by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), had planned to defer the sentences of men convicted of statutory rape involving girls aged 18 or younger - and without use of "force, threat, or any other restriction on consent" - if they went on to marry their victim.

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Supporters claimed it enabled couples who married when one participant was underage to normalise their marriage without fear of legal ramifications. However, opposition MPs said it would "lead to girls being forced into marriage against their will and encourage abusers", the Daily Telegraph reports.

A joint statement from Unicef, the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, UN Women and the UN Development Programme in Turkey called on the Turkish parliament to reject the bill.

"Any forms of sexual violence against children are crimes which should be punished as such," it said.

There were also public protests in Turkey, with opposition voiced from all parts of the political spectrum, reports BBC Turkey correspondent Mark Lowen.

"When conservative, usually pro-government, women spoke out against it - including the president's wife - the bill was doomed to failure," he writes.

The age of consent for state-recognised civil marriage in Turkey is 18, but anti child-marriage charity Girls Not Brides says at least 15 per cent of brides are younger.

It adds that the true figure may be much higher as "most child marriages are unregistered and take place as unofficial religious marriages".

A 2014 study by researchers at Gaziantep University in Turkey found an average of one in three marriages involved at least one underage participant, Al-Monitor reports. The rate varied from 60 per cent in the south-eastern city of Urfa, which is home to a large Arab population, to 16 per cent in more cosmopolitan areas.