Review of the activities of QUNO in 2011.

QUNO Geneva Newsletter for July 2011 to October 2011. Featured stories:

• Sustainability: Inspiration for QUNO from Britain Yearly Meeting Gathering
• REDD - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation
• News from QUNO New York
• Engaging with Civil Society: Voices on Armed Violence in the Balkans
• News in Brief
• If My Parents Go to Prison, What Happens to Me?

In this statement to the 16th session of the Human Rights Council, Quakers welcome the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Bangkok Rules, calling on States to ensure they are appropriately disseminated. The statement also welcomes the Committee on the Rights of the Child having decided to dedicate the 2011 Day of General Discussion to the theme of “children of incarcerated parents.”

See also the written statement on the same subject issued a year later.

QUNO Geneva's newsletter for November 2010 to January 2011. Featured stories:

• About the year-in-review issue
• From Policy-makers to Practitioners: Disarmament and Peace 2010
• From Seeds to Sustainability: Global Economic Issues 2010
• From Prisons to Protection :Human Rights and Refugees 2010
• Update from QUNO New York
• QUNO Summer School 2011
• Staff Update

Several international and national NGOs, together with experts, requested that the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) consider dedicating its 2011 Day of General Discussion to the issue of Children of Imprisoned Parents. This document is the actual text of their proposal to the CRC. It includes a statement of the problem of children of imprisoned parents, and suggestions on what the content of the Day of General Discussion could include.

In this oral statement delivered at the 14th session of the Human Rights Council, Quakers welcome the progress made in developing new draft UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders, noting that they did addressed only a limited aspect of the problem. The submission highlights QUNO’s draft Framework for Decision-Making in Relation to Children of Offenders, requesting comments. It also welcomes proposed EU research on the issue of children in prison, to fill critical gaps in knowledge.

See also: Children of (Alleged) Offenders: Revised Draft Framework for Decision-Making.

QUNO Geneva's newsletter for November to January 2010. Featured stories:

• Conscientious Objection to Military Service
• Securing the Millennium Development Goals
• A Letter from QUNO New York
• Reasons to be Hopeful? Prospects for the Disarmament Agenda 2010
• Women in Prison
• QUNO Seeks New Programme Assistants
• From Trade Justice to Climate Justice? Reflections Around the WTO’s 2009 Ministerial Conference
• Quaker United Nations Summer School
• Quakers at the Copenhagen Climate Conference
• Panel Discussion on Intellectual Property and Food

This paper is part of a series of publications looking at the different aspects of the impact of parental imprisonment on children. Jean Tomkin, an Irish trainee solicitor had written her Masters’ dissertation on the issue of children of imprisoned parents, and re-worked and updated it for publication under QUNO’s series. The publication explores the legal issues concerning the rights of the child in these circumstances, and studies case law from several contexts. QUNO hopes the publication will “encourage and enable lawyers, judges, policy-makers and activists to understand why and how the best interests of the child can and should be taken into account when a parent with caring responsibilities for children comes within the criminal justice system.”

QUNO Geneva's newsletter for February to April 2009. Featured stories:

• Women in Prison: New Steps and Resolutions
• Making a Difference on Global Economic Issues
• Conscientious Objection at the Human Rights Council
• New Momentum in Nuclear Disarmament