On May 17th + May 18th, the UN Committee asked Canada about the rights of children with incarcerated parents: How many children are there? What are the programs and supports available to children with incarcerated parents in Canada? We asked follow up questions:
i) Are alternatives to detention considered at sentencing in the best interests of the child and to place children at the centre of decision- making? ii) What are the current stats on CSC mother-child units - how many are operating, how many mothers are located there, which federal institutions house them, how many are Indigenous mothers? iii) And the question they have already committed to answering re what are the actual numbers of incarcerated parents in Canada - federal, provincial and territories?
We are awaiting the concluding observations and recommendations from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child - to be released after June 3 2022.
Link to the press release here
