Vietnam
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Following on from their involvement in the UN Study on Violence against ChildrenA very big piece of research where adults from the United Nations found out all about violence against children all over the world. Click to read more., children and young people will be attending a regional forum in Bangkok in 2010.
Children and young people aged between 8 and 18 have also taken various other actions against corporal punishment. MOLISA (the government’s Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs), the Youth Union and Plan International carried out a campaign against corporal punishment in 6 provinces. Here is some information about a workshop held in Quang Ngai province:
"The first Plan workshop was in Son Ha district for teachers, parents, the media and government officials. A newspaper there had highlighted a serious case of bullying in a local school where a headmaster and several teachers had forcefully cut the hair of 200 students to just below their ears, despite the fact that long hair is a tradition in the region.
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At the workshop children performed a play about being beaten and neglected by their parents and schools.
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District Vice Chairman, Ding Van Ai said: 'I never thought that children could do such wonderful things. Today I have seen it with my eyes, and believe that children can participate.'"
Children also took part in a forum where lots of different people had the chance to talk about corporal punishment, and 50 children attended a workshop chaired by the government Minister for Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.
Children involved in this campaign had a Junior Journalists’ Club – they interviewed teachers, parents and children about corporal punishment and had their articles published in a newspaper. Adults from the campaign wrote some articles too.
Throughout the campaign, the children used a couple of slogans to get their message across: “The rod never makes a child,” and “Love is stronger than scolding.”
Lots of parents in Vietnam agree that corporal punishment is wrong, but feel that they don’t have any other way to discipline their children. So children have tried to explain to parents that corporal punishment is wrong and that there are other ways to look after children. This is called positive parenting.
One of the ways children have done this is by making a TV programme about corporal punishment. They interviewed children about corporal punishment. One of these children told them that she had explained to her parents that it was wrong to hit her to punish her, and so her parents had stopped hitting her.
Children and parents were also involved in making another TV programme about positive parenting with Save the Children Sweden on the Youth TV channel. This programme won a silver award.
It's not all easy!
There have been some problems with the campaign. Children from the countryside are often shyer and less confident than children from cities, so it is harder for them to speak out about what they think.
Girls are also often shyer and less confident than boys. But sometimes more girls have been involved in the campaign than boys.
Children have a lot of respect for adults and they may be scared to say what they think. Adults need to make sure that they give children plenty of help to speak out.
If the government made an official rule or law that says that children have to be given the chance to participate, that would make it easier to run campaigns like this.
Read more about the problems that children face in taking action, and how they solve them.
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