4.
Children living in prison with their mothers experience a range of violations of
their rights, including psychosocial and health problems and difficulties in
accessing education. Parental incarceration can also result in difficulties for
children living apart from their parents such as financial and material hardship,
instability in family relationships and residential mobility.
It can result in
worsening performance at school, shame, and social and institutional stigma. In
some States Parties, parents are under pressure to terminate their parental rights
upon conviction. Incarceration may also damage parents' perception of
themselves as parents. The psychological repercussions can be analogous to
those resulting from other forms of loss, such as death or divorce, although some
repercussions are distinct.
5.
In recognition of the importance and invisibility of the issue of children affected
by the incarceration of their parents/ primary caregivers, the African Committee
decided to prepare its first General Comment on this theme.
1.1 Objectives of the General Comment
6.
The overall purpose of the General Comment is to support States Parties, and
other stakeholders,4 in the effective implementation of Article 30. Article 30 lays
out a number of provisions ensuring 'special treatment' for pregnant women and
mothers who are accused or convicted of criminal offences. Under this Article,
States Parties must ensure that non-custodial sentences are always considered
first for pregnant women and mothers of young children and they must establish
alternatives to detention for them. Article 30(1)(f) also states: „the essential aim
of the penitentiary system will be the reformation, the integration of the mother to
the family and social rehabilitation.‟
7.
Article 30 is informed by the fact that children of incarcerated parents/primary
pertaining to the treatments given to incarcerated pregnant mothers and incarcerated mothers of
babies and young children and recommends that this information be included in the next reports.'
4
The preamble to the African Children‟s Charter states that the promotion and protection of the rights
and welfare of the child can only be fulfilled once everyone (which does not just include States Parties
– even though States Parties have a primary duty to fulfil their obligations) perform their duties.
4