Eliminating corporal punishment - a worthy aim for the current UN Secretary General's Study on Violence against Children

Download this paper - 131KB PDF

Download this presentation - 60KB PDF

Author

Peter Newell & Beth Wood

Speaker

Beth Wood

Organisation

Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment

The aim of the paper is to inform participants of the accelerating progress in the region and globally towards achieving law reform to give children equal protection from being hit and deliberately humiliated. Currently, laws in most states authorise violence against children in their homes. In many, including in the region, corporal punishment remains legal and state-authorised in schools, other institutions and penal systems. All this legalised violence against children exists alongside attempts to build up child protection systems. Currently (July 2005) just 16 states have prohibited all corporal punishment including in the family. In about 90 states worldwide, corporal punishment persists in schools and in almost 80, including a number in this region, whipping or caning is still part of the penal system for young offenders.

The UN Secretary General, authorised by the General Assembly, is carrying out a global study on violence against children which will report to the General Assembly towards the end of 2006. As part of the Study, nine regional consultations have been held, including one for East Asia and Pacific region in June 2005. At each the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children has presented a regional report on the legal status and prevalence of corporal punishment in each state. By autumn of 2005 the website of the Global Initiative at www.endcorporalpunishment.org will include an analysis for every state and dependent territory in the world. At each consultation, recommendations have emerged for law reform to ban all corporal punishment, together with comprehensive awareness-raising and public education aiming to eliminate it. The Study is committed to the active participation of children and young people - and at each consultation they have spoken out strongly in favour of law reform and highlighted the hurt that routine and apparently socially approved violence causes them.

The paper will review the experience of the consultations in every region, the commitments made and progress towards eliminating corporal punishment.

Presentation

Paper

Biography

Beth Wood
Beth Wood is Advocacy Manager for UNICEF New Zealand and is a spokesperson for EPOCH New Zealand. She has been involved for over 10 years with campaigning to discourage the use of physical punishment. Reducing violence to children is a key aspect of her work. Her interest in changing attitudes about physical discipline arises from awareness of the link between physical punishment and child abuse, and promoting children's human rights. Beth's background is in social work, social policy and advocacy.