An estimated 2.1 million children across Europe have a parent in prison. In addition to being separated from their parent, these children may also experience stigma, trauma and anxiety, which can have an impact on their well-being and development.
In April 2018, the Council of Europe published policy guidelines for all 47 member states, emphasising that children with a parent in prison are entitled to the same rights as other children, including regular contact with their parents, if this is in their best interests.
As with many policies, the Recommendation was written by adults, for adults.
In the framework of the 2018 COPE campaign “Not my crime still my sentence”, COPE members across Europe engaged with groups of children to re-write the Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)5 into child-friendly language.
The goals of the campaign were to raise awareness of the Recommendation while encouraging children and young people to take ownership of the Recommendation and the guidelines concerning children with imprisoned parents.
COPE UK member POPS worked with small groups of children to tackle two articles of the Recommendation focused on the use of technology in maintaining contact with a parent in prison. This short film describes this process and the children’s final interpretation of the guidelines.
Read the full Recommendation here, child-friendly version coming soon!
Concept and Direction: Rebecca Cheung, POPS Video Production: Northern Spark Productions https://northernsparkproductions.com/