QUNO Geneva delivered a statement at the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council this March, as part of a discussion with the Special Rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism. The statement, delivered by Programme Assistant for Human Rights and Refugees Lucy Halton, built upon QUNO’s years of work on children of incarcerated parents by focussing on the rights of children of parents accused or convicted of association with designated terrorist groups.

For over a decade, QUNO has worked to draw attention to the rights of children of incarcerated parents and to strengthen standards and guidance to better protect their rights.

QUNO Geneva has warmly welcomed the publication of the full version of the UN’s Global Study on Children Deprived of their Liberty, following their significant contributions to its contents.

Research is currently underway on a UN Global Study on Children Deprived of their Liberty and your help is needed.

The Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty (called for in UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/69/157) will shed light on the scale and conditions of children deprived of liberty, identifying good practices and making recommendations for effective measures to prevent human rights violations against children in detention and reduce the number of children deprived of liberty.

The Quaker United Nations Office works on children of parents sentenced to death or executed first and foremost because we believe that such children should not be forgotten and their rights should be upheld.  The 2016 World Congress Against the Death Penalty recognized that the impact of a death sentence on the children of parents sentenced to death or executed represents a powerful argument against the death penalty.

QUNO organized a panel event, "The Rights of Children of Incarcerated Parents: Replicating good practice from Italy," that took place at the UN on 1 February 2017. The event was hosted by the Permanent Missions to the UN of Italy and Argentina, and the Child Rights Connect Working Group on Children of Incarcerated Parents. 

To mark five years since the Committee on the Rights of the Child held a Day of General Discussion (DGD) on Children of Incarcerated Parents, Child Rights Connect’s Working Group on this issue is launching a new database of relevant recommendations from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. As convenor of Child Rights Connect’s Working Group, QUNO has complied this database to highlight what has been achieved since the DGD, and to encourage further progress in protecting the rights of these children around the world.