Short film: ‘Mother, don’t worry’ / ‘Мама не горюй’

PRI’s Central Asia office supported the creation of this short film, which explores the issues of young children living with their mothers in prison in Kazakhstan.

Language: Russian

In Kazakhstan, there are currently 22 children living in a mother and baby unit in a women’s prison in the country’s Almaty region. The children live with their mothers until they are three years old, when they are either sent to live with relatives or to an orphanage.

The film highlights the issues involved with children living with their imprisoned mothers, and the importance of creating special programmes for mothers and children and of using an individual approach when making any decisions relating to the child.

The film was made within the framework of PRI’s project ‘Support to Judicial Reform in Kazakhstan: Empowering of CSOs to improve access to justice for vulnerable groups in Kazakhstan’, which is funded by the European Union.

The United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Female Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) state that women prisoners whose children are in prison with them shall be provided with the maximum possible opportunities to spend time with their children, and children living with their mothers in prison shall be provided with ongoing healthcare services and their development shall be monitored by specialists, in collaboration with community health services. The environment provided for the children’s upbringing should be as close as possible to that of a child outside prison.