In March, the Child Rights Connect Working Group on Children of Incarcerated Parents jointly with the African Union and the Permanent Mission of Uruguay held a side event at the UN Human Rights Council on children of incarcerated parents. Jorge Cardona from the Committee on the Rights of the Child spoke about the Committee’s evolving approach to this issue. Julia Sloth Nielson, member of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child introduced their general comment on children of prisoners. She outlined the general comment and explained the Africa Committee’s reasoning for interpreting the scope of Article 30 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child to include not just mothers in prison but any caregiver. Oliver Robertson described the work penal Reform International were undertaking to improve implementation of article 30 and the General Comment. Finally, Jorge Frere spoke about the significant progress being made to uphold the rights of children of incarcerated parents in Uruguay. More information on the work in Latin America can be found here: http://www.cwslac.org/en/docs/Invisible_no_more.pdf (English) and: http://www.cwslac.org/es/docs/Invisibles_hasta_cuando.pdf (Spanish)
The English and French versions of the African General Comment on Article 30 (Children of incarcerated and imprisoned parents and primary caregivers), including short guides in both languages, can be found here: http://acerwc.org/general-comments/
QUNO held a further side event at the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Qatar in April. This event focused on the findings of the COPING project and the presentation of a new briefing on international standards relating to children of incarcerated parents. http://www.quno.org/resource/2015/4/children-incarcerated-parents-international-standards-and-guidance
For more information on QUNO’s work on children of incarcerated parents, see: http://www.quno.org/areas-of-work/children-prisoners