The COVID-19 pandemic, and the accompanying measures put in place to control it, are having a dramatic impact on some of Europe’s most vulnerable children, families and communities, compounding structural weaknesses in child protection and welfare systems. In the long-term, the socio-economic impact of the crisis, coupled with strained government services, will test the capacity … Read more
Join us on Tuesday 26 May to discuss how individuals, organisations and states across Europe are working to maintain contact between children and their parent in prison during the current pandemic.
It is with deep regret that due to the COVID-19 pandemic we have taken the decision to cancel this year’s COPE Conference and Annual Networking Meeting due to take place in Leiden, 12-14 June 2020. We are particularly saddened to have to do this as we were looking forward to celebrating COPE’s 20th anniversary together with you. … Read more
2019 saw advances in both qualitative and qualitative data collection. With more robust data on who they are and where they are, support initiatives for children with a parent in prison are able to be stronger and more focused on individual needs. Data collection with a focus on mutual trust involves the prisoner-parent and is … Read more
Shona Minson, a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford and a COPE member since 2014, has released her book Maternal Sentencing and the Rights of the Child at a crucial moment when awareness of children with imprisoned parents is reaching critical mass in some European contexts. Drawing … Read more
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Parliament has presented a motion for a resolution on children’s rights. The resolution (2019/28769RSP)) takes into account a number of developments in recent years. Some of the considerations include: promoting children’s rights is an explicit objective of … Read more
Children of Prisoners Europe (COPE) is helping to make fundamental rights a reality for the 800,000 children of the incarcerated as the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights celebrates its 10th anniversary. Article 24(3)[1] of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights enshrines the right of children to family contact when in their best interests. Clear evidence … Read more
2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the landmark United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), and a conference was held on November 20th at the European Parliament to commemorate this child’s rights standard, the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history. Much of the conference consisted of reflections on the … Read more
Children of Prisoners Europe (COPE) has published It’s Time to Act, a child-friendly version of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)5 to Member States concerning children with imprisoned parents, which provides guidance on how to better support the rights of children with a parent in prison. The original Recommendation, a combined effort … Read more
The Child Rights Connect Working Group on Children of Incarcerated Parents welcomes the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of their Liberty. We particularly welcome the Study’s detailed discussion on the rights of children living in prison with a parent, and the research which has been undertaken on this crucial subject. Laurel Townhead, Human Rights … Read more
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COPE is proud to be one of 18 organisations that contributed to writing the Child Rights Manifesto.
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