Keynote Speaker: Joan Durrant

Dr. Joan Durrant is a Child-Clinical Psychologist and Associate Professor of Family Social Sciences at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. For the past 15 years, Dr.Durrant's research has focused on the psychological and cultural factors that contribute to parents' use of corporal punishment, and she has published many academic papers on the issue. She has lived in Sweden for extended periods to study the context, history and implementation of the world's first corporal punishment ban, a law that reflects the child-rights focus of Sweden's social policy framework.

Dr.Durrant was the principal researcher and co-author of the Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth, an initiative of 6 national Canadian organisations. The Joint Statement has been endorsed, to date, by more than 160 professional organizations across Canada. Dr.Durrant is also the author of several public education materials, including What's Wrong with Spanking? published by the Canadian departments of Justice and Health, and Spanking: Should I or Shouldn't I? a brochure that has reached a circulation of more than 300,000 in Canada.

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The theme of this conference - Blossoming of our Children - conveys a sense of positive growth from fragility to strength, from dependence to spiritual flight. It conveys optimism in the potential of our children to flourish and in adults to provide the nourishment that will feed their growth.

But we know that in our world, many parents are unable to adequately nourish and nurture their children, many communities are wastelands of despair, and many children's potential is never realized. In some regions of the world, this situation is assumed to be the necessary nature of things and the notion of all children flourishing is assumed to be utopian idealism. But is it?

In this address, I will take the audience to a country where children's rights and developmental needs occupy the top level of the political agenda - Sweden. There, child poverty is unacceptable, violence against children is not tolerated, a single child's death is too many - and extensive family support is woven into the fabric of the society. Where other nations have taken a punitive or neglectful approach to families facing challenges, Sweden has taken a proactive, preventive and supportive approach. The results are impressive - child poverty, child abuse fatalities, and child homelessness are virtually non-existent. A foundation has been created for family health and, as a result, children's potential to blossom is not squandered.

I will describe Sweden's approach to family policy in order to generate ideas for changes that could be made in our own countries in order that all children can thrive.