Date: July 2002

Global call to stop hitting children: international seminar hears of progress to outlaw all corporal punishment

DENVER, COLORADO (July 7 2007)
The global campaign to end all corporal punishment of children, including in the family, is making rapid progress as UN human rights bodies and high-level courts in many countries condemn it.

An international seminar on "Global Progress Towards Ending All Corporal Punishment of Children" in Denver, Colorado challenged all governments to stop defending – or disguising as discipline – deliberate violence against children and to accept that children, like adults, have fundamental human rights not to be assaulted.

Meeting on the eve of the 14th International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect, experts and campaigners from the US, Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific region also urged all those working in child protection systems in all states to advocate abolition of all corporal punishment as a key strategy for securing children's safety.

The seminar was co-organised by the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, EPOCH-USA (www.stophitting.com) and Save the Children Sweden (www.rb.se). Peter Newell, Joint Coordinator of the Global Initiative, comments: "It's crazy that in most countries children, smaller and more vulnerable than the rest of us, still have less legal protection from being hit than adults. It is only adult hypocrisy and political cowardice which cling to this disreputable habit. But things are really moving now in all continents".

ABOLITION IN OVER 90 COUNTRIES

In over 90 countries worldwide, corporal punishment of children has been abolished in schools and the penal system for young offenders. In 11 countries it has been prohibited in the family as well. In 13 other countries there are active discussions now on abolition.

"Global progress towards ending corporal punishment is exciting. It is embarrassing to have to report that US school children in 23 states are still hit with boards in the name of discipline", says Nadine Block, EPOCH-USA Chair and Director of the Center for Effective Discipline.

UN COMMITTEE CONDEMNS CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child - an internationally elected group of experts - has formally recommended prohibition to 142 countries in all continents. The Committee is responsible for monitoring countries' progress in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention has been accepted (ratified) by all but two countries (the US and Somalia). The Committee tells countries that continued legal and social acceptance of any corporal punishment of children is not compatible with the Convention: when they ratify, countries take on obligations under international law to protect children from "all forms of physical and mental violence" while in the care of parents and others. The Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Professor Jaap Doek, from the Netherlands, spoke at the seminar.

RESEARCH STUDIES CONDEMN HITTING CHILDREN

Professor Murray Straus, Co-Director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, and the foremost American researcher into family violence, also speaking at the seminar, sums up research findings: "The results of a larger number of careful scientific studies show that children who are not spanked, like kids who are spanked, range from wonderful to terrible. But on average, those kids who are not spanked tend to be better behaved and do better in school. When they grow up, they tend to have better marriages, earn more money, and live better lives. We need to get these basic scientific facts into the hands of all parents and the members of all state and national legislatures."

One of the most comprehensive analyses of research into the effects of corporal punishment was published in the latest edition of the American Psychological Association's journal. Its author, Dr. Elizabeth Gershoff writes: "Americans need to re-evaluate why we believe it is reasonable to hit young, vulnerable children, when it is against the law to hit other adults, prisoners and even animals". Dr. Gershoff will be attending the conference. Another speaker at the seminar, Professor Joan Durrant, Head of the Department of Family Studies at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada) summarised recent research into young children's views of corporal punishment: children themselves are beginning to speak out and say how much corporal punishment hurts them, and not just physically.

KEY JUDGMENTS

The seminar heard of key judgments from supreme and constitutional courts (for example in Israel, Italy, India, South Africa) and the European Court of Human Rights which have condemned corporal punishment. Most recently, earlier this year in Fiji an appeal court held: "Children have rights no wit inferior to the rights of adults. Fiji has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Our Constitution also guarantees fundamental rights to every person. Government is required to adhere to principles respecting the rights of all individuals, communities and groups. By their status as children, children need special protection. Our educational institutions should be sanctuaries of peace and creative enrichment, not places for fear, ill-treatment and tampering with the human dignity of students...". The Court quashed a sentence of corporal punishment and in addition declared that corporal punishment in the penal system and in schools is unconstitutional and unlawful.

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