Children of China's prisoners are being punished by society, too

Today we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. China signed up in 1990 and ratified it in 1992.

Governments that have ratified the convention seek to ensure that these rights are available for all children. China has, without doubt, made big progress in ensuring children's rights. Basic needs are met, and progress in delivering education for all school-aged children has been sensational. Yet there is an ever-growing group of children who struggle and who have several rights denied: those whose parents are in prison.

Based on the number of prisoners in China, we estimate there are now more than a million children in China with one or both parents in prison. The problems these children face are numerous. Often, they are traumatised after being involved in or seeing violence.

Even witnessing the arrest of a parent is something that will stay forever in the mind of a child. When parents are imprisoned, the children go through an emotional roller coaster: mostly, they miss their parent tremendously; they don't understand the situation; they convince themselves that when a judge sees the parent, he will surely let his mother or father go.

On the day of the judgment, when the parent receives mostly a long jail sentence, the child's world is destroyed, leaving only hopelessness and helplessness. Many youngsters fall back into poverty, since it is often the main caregiver that is imprisoned.

The worst thing is often the biases of society towards these children, regarded as criminals, too. They cope with prejudices by keeping their situation secret, and becoming 'invisible" and not claiming their rights.