Left behind
Emily Graham describes QUNO’s work in relation to children of parents sentenced to death or executed
The last execution in Britain took place in 1964. Yet, the death penalty continues to affect people from the UK. In 2013, the UK Foreign Office reported that there were twelve British nationals facing the death penalty abroad and a further fifty-five facing charges carrying a possible death sentence. Capital punishment not only affects the individual but also their families, friends and wider communities. Children, in particular, are often deeply and directly affected when their parent faces capital punishment, whether at home or abroad.
Quakers have long opposed capital punishment. From 1818, London Yearly Meeting called for the abolition of the death penalty, although others, such as John Bellers (1654-1725), had advocated this much earlier. More recently, the Statement on the Death Penalty by British Quakers states that ‘private vengeance or judicial execution serves no purpose but to perpetuate …the trauma’. The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) responds to this idea, that capital punishment perpetuates trauma, by focusing on the rights and wellbeing of children whose parents have been sentenced to death.
A parental death sentence or execution has profound implications for a child, especially psychologically and emotionally. Children may experience low self-esteem, anger, difficulty sleeping and can lose concentration and their interest in school and play.
Children of prisoners generally tend to suffer a change or deterioration in their physical and mental health, living situations and relationships with others when their parent is incarcerated. However, these changes tend to be more intense with children of parents sentenced to death or executed and some issues are distinct, especially the trauma of the actual execution. The execution can cause intense fear, hopelessness or horror, but even the anticipation and knowledge that their parent is on death row is uniquely traumatic for a child.
Execution by the state is different from any other death or separation from a parent, as it is deliberate, premeditated and sanctioned by legal process. This results in a unique burden for the child, who may become disillusioned about the role and authority of the state.
Although the state has a responsibility to ensure that children are cared for after their parent is sentenced to death, they are usually given little or no assistance and left without adequate care or support. Furthermore, these children often experience stigmatisation due to association with their parent’s crime, which leads to social isolation. Maintaining a relationship between children and their parent on death row is generally found to be beneficial. However, this can be practically challenging, both in terms of visitation and indirect contact, such as telephone calls.
QUNO works to develop awareness of the rights and wellbeing of children whose parents have been sentenced to death at either the national and international level.
On September 11, the United Nations substantively addressed, for the first time, children of parents sentenced to death or executed with a panel in the Human Rights Council, where experts from around the world called for child-friendly criminal justice systems.
QUNO chaired a side-event the following day in which the impact of the death penalty on children was examined more fully, including visitations, the period before and after an execution, and the specific circumstances of children with parents on death row abroad.
In preparation for these events, QUNO produced a new publication, Children of parents sentenced to death or executed: How are they affected? How can they be supported?, on behalf of the Child Rights Connect Working Group on Children of Incarcerated Parents.
Since the recent Human Rights Council session, QUNO is working to raise awareness in other UN human rights bodies. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has asked questions to delegations from China, India and Kuwait about children of parents sentenced to death or executed. In particular, the Committee recommended that the government of Kuwait ‘fully take into account the best interests of the child in judicial proceedings where parents are involved and when sentencing parents to death’.
Emily is a programme assistant, Human Rights and Refugees, QUNO.
