Linking the United Nations on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) to the needs of children affected by parental imprisonment

Parental imprisonment is an adverse childhood experience. A recent research review (Shaw et al., 2022) emphasised the need to explicitly consider children affected by parental imprisonment (CAPI) when promoting the children’s rights (UNCRC, 1989). This systematic mapping review provides an original identification and analysis of relationships between CAPI’s needs and children’s rights instrumentation. Drawing from Shaw et al. (2022), the identified needs of, and associated provisions for, CAPI in education are linked to a range of provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Of the 12 identified needs of CAPI, nine were referenced within at least one of the UNCRC sources with many being referenced multiple times within and/or across sources. The significance of this linking of children’s needs and children’s rights to educational theory, to professional practice, and for future research, is highlighted.