Throughout June, this year’s “Not my crime, still my sentence” campaign will be promoting the Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec 2018(5) concerning children with imprisoned parents, highlighting initiatives that are contributing to its implementation and the work that COPE members are doing across the network.

The Council of Europe Recommendation both recognises parental imprisonment as having long-lasting effects on the well-being of millions of children, and addresses the needs of those children through 56 articles that provide guidelines for good practice. The Recommendation aims to raise awareness and promote meaningful action by State and other bodies, and shift the ways in which children who have a parent in prison are seen and treated. Its main themes include: basic principles, police detention; judicial orders and sentences; conditions of imprisonment; staff working with, and for, children and their imprisoned parents; monitoring; research and evaluation of child-friendly practices and policies; work with the media and with public opinion.

The Recommendation is directed to key stakeholders in judiciary and penitentiary systems, connecting these systems to child rights, as children with imprisoned parents are entitled to the same rights and protection as all children and should be provided with comparable opportunities. The adoption of Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec 2018(5) by all 47 member states represents a significant step towards more comprehensive acknowledgment of the impact of imprisonment of a parent on children and the fact that prison can be a difficult environment for children; it takes into account that child-parent relationships are not always positive and healthy; and considers that children with imprisoned parents should form part of cross‑sectorial, multidisciplinary national child protection and welfare strategies.

The 2018 “Not my crime, still my sentence” campaign involved over 120 children from 11 European countries, where member organisations worked with children to draft a child-friendly version of the Recommendation. This allowed children to engage with the Recommendation, and once published in Autumn 2019, this tool will facilitate the task of sharing the messages of the Recommendation with key stakeholders. Child participation at the 2019 international conference ‘Bridging the gap: Boosting the visibility, voices and cross-sectoral support of children who have a parent in prison’ in Krakow provided momentum and inspiration for work moving forward. Children’s voices should be heard, they want people to listen and act, to know that having a parent in prison is not their total identity, it is not who they are.

Join us in the 2019 “Not my crime, still my sentence” campaign throughout the month of June to supporting children with parents in prison!

You can:

  • Engage with us on social media, like and share our posts!
  • Donate and encourage others to donate.
  • Write a letter to your Ministry of Justice to encourage their implementation of the Council of Europe Recommendation.

For ways in which you can encourage implementation and for any other information, write to us at contact[at]networkcope.eu