COPE Campaign, Not my Crime, Still my Sentence

That the Parliament recognises that June 2019 marks the pan-European campaign, Not my Crime, Still my Sentence, which, since 2010, has been run annually by Children Of Prisoners Europe (COPE) to raise awareness of children with imprisoned parents, including the challenges that they can face and how society can best support their rights and needs; understands that over 2.1 million children in Europe are affected by parental imprisonment and that, according to Barnardo's and Families Outside, over 30,000 in Scotland are in this position; notes that this year’s campaign focuses on the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers' recommendations concerning children with imprisoned parents, which were adopted on 4 April 2018; understands that these include policy guidelines on maintaining child-parent relations and avoiding the arrest of parents in the presence of children, and urges Members to consider these recommendations, which, it believes, will help to safeguard the rights and interests of children of imprisoned parents.