THE FOSTER CARE CONTRACT UNDER TURKISH LAW AND AN EVALUATION OF THE LEGAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FOSTER PARENTS AND THE FOSTER CHILD

Recently, the foster care has been promoted in Turkish child protection system. Accordingly, it’s expected that the number of the legal conflicts regarding this issue will increase. This article aims at evaluating the legal nature of the relationship between the parties. Under Turkish law, the parents are responsible for the care of their children. Only when it’s necessary, the children in need of protection are placed into the foster care by the courts. Thereupon the foster care contract’s signed between the foster parents and the authorities. It’s concluded that as the foster child is within the household, the foster parents are the head of the household. Also, as a rule, this relationship is subject to “the right to respect for private life”, but in only exceptional cases it is subject to “the right to respect for family life”. Finally, this relation between the parties might be considered as a close personal relationship in terms of law.