The 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was effectively a European reiteration of and expansion on the original 1989 Convention and the agreements that followed. Whereas the original Convention—fundamental in defining children’s rights and one of the primary reasons for COPE’s foundation—does not mention the issue of children with incarcerated parents, this 2014 text defines the imprisonment of a parent as having a significant impact on children’s rights. Article 13:
13. Calls on the Commission to assess the impact of detention policies and criminal justice systems on children; points out that across the EU children’s rights are directly affected in the case of children living in detention facilities with their parents; underlines the fact that an estimated 800 000 children in the EU are separated from an imprisoned parent each year, which impacts on the rights of children in multiple ways.