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The logo of the CAU Children's Campaign. Click to visit their website.
Child's picture of an adult hitting a child, while another child watches. All of them look sad.

In 2007, the Children are Unbeatable! Alliance (CAU - a huge group of people and organisations who want to make all corporal punishment illegal) employed an adult Children’s Campaign Co-ordinator, to help children and young people get more involved in campaigning for the law on corporal punishment to change.

Children and young people mostly became involved through contacts with other organisations and through their friends telling them about it, often using social networking sites such as Facebook. Today, about 250 young people have signed up to say that they want the law to change. They receive emails and letters telling them about the ways in which they can be involved in campaigning.

Some of the things they have done are:

  • Giving speeches at several conferences and meetings, including a conference for adults involved in religious organisations, the launch of a European campaign against corporal punishment in Brussels, Belgium, and meetings for supporters of CAU in the UK Parliament building and an important church nearby. Read their speech. (Opens .doc file).
  • Attending other organisations’ events to talk about banning corporal punishment to people in the government, adults and other young people.
  • Running information and activity stalls at children’s events – for example, the Liverpool Children’s Festival – to let more children know about the campaign. Often, they ask other children to draw or write why they think corporal punishment is wrong (see the pictures below) and use the pictures to tell adults about what children think.
  • Giving out flyers about ending corporal punishment to politicians who were attending an important political event.
  • A young supporter wrote an article about the campaign which was published in many young people’s magazines. Read it here. (Opens .doc file).
  • Many young people have also written to and gone to speak to their Members of ParliamentMembers of Parliament represent people in their area in the UK Parliament, which makes and changes laws in the UK. about why corporal punishment should be banned. Some have given talks in their schools or youth groups to let more young people know about the campaign. CAU has a website which includes information to help young people do this.

    • Child's writing: 'Hitting' with a cross through it.
    Child's writing: 'It hurts badly leave us alone'.
    Child's writing: 'Because it is dangerous and it hurts. Josh B'.