International, regional and national campaigns for law reform to prohibit all corporal punishment of children

Southern Africa

The Southern African Network to End Corporal and Humiliating Punishment of Children co-ordinates advocacy towards banning all forms of corporal and other humiliating punishment and the promotion of positive discipline in Southern Africa.

Angola

Save the Children in Angola (SCiA – contact adelinoscia@gmail.com) has developed a media campaign and related materials in response to the widespread corporal punishment of children in schools. SCiA and the National Children’s Institute (INAC) launched the campaign on 19 November 2011.

Burundi

ACPDH (Community Association for Human Rights - contact acpdh_bdi@yahoo.fr) has been working to raise awareness of corporal punishment of children and to lobby the Government to take action on corporal punishment since June 2009.

Cameroon

EMIDA campaigns against corporal punishment in the family and schools. In 2010, in collaboration with local partners, it provided training for parents, teachers and children in 5 local communities. It has also published materials promoting non-violent teaching and positive discipline.

Namibia

The Legal Assistance Centre is lobbying for law change to prohibit corporal punishment and  working to increase awareness about alternatives to corporal punishment through the use of film, comics, factsheets, posters and workshops.

Nigeria

The Child Rights Network (contact info_chirn@yahoo.com) facilitates an NGO coalition, National Action on Banning Corporal Punishment and Violence against Children, and is working closely with teachers to end corporal punishment in schools. The Network produces regular news bulletins on the campaign:

Discipline, vol. 1, no. 6, Nov-Dec 2010

Discipline, vol. 1, no. 5, Sept-Oct 2010

Discipline, vol. 1, no. 4, Nov-Dec 2009

Nigeria

The Nigeria Coalition of Educators Against Corporal Punishment in Nigerian Schools (contact bayoolupohunda@yahoo.com) is working with educators in schools to stop all forms of violence and abuse against students, including corporal punishment.

Somalia

KAALO Relief and Development in partnership with UNICEF and the Puntland Ministry of Education is working to end corporal punishment in schools through a ministerial decree, the development of guidelines for teachers, workshops, discussions and media campaigns.

Sudan

The Alternatives to Corporal Punishment Program, funded by rhe Child Rights Institute (contact sudanchild@hotmail.com, Yas_shalabi@yahoo.com or nahedshams@hotmail.com) carries out advocacy on ending school corporal punishment, focussing especially on teacher training.

Uganda

Raising Voices is working to end violence against children, with a particular focus on preventing school corporal punishment. Raising Voices involves children in campaigning. See our website for children for more information.

United Republic of Tanzania

The Caucus for Children’s Rights runs the 50% Campaign, a campaign running from 2010-2013 to make violence against children socially unacceptable, including through prohibition of corporal punishment.

The National Network of Organizations working with Children (NNOC - contact nnocsecretariat@gmail.com) has been campaigning for explicit prohibition of corporal punishment in all settings since 1999.

Zambia

The Zambia Civic Education Association (ZCEA) is lobbying for law reform to prohibit all corporal punishment, including in the home. Corporal punishment was prohibited in schools under the Education Act (2011). In May 2011 ZCEA launched a campaign on ending corporal punishment and poster exhibition “Corporal Punishment Free Zone” in Lusaka.

Belize

The National Organisation for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Belize (NOPCAN Belize - contact nopcanbelize@yahoo.com)  is lobbying for the prohibition of all corporal punishment, including through engaging with key stakeholders in political consultations. Coporal punishment is prohibited in schools under the  Education and Training Act (2010).

Guyana

Help and Shelter provides support to women and children who are victims of violence and carries out advocacy, including for the prohibition of school corporal punishment.

Trinidad and Tobago

T&T Coalition Against Domestic & Gender Based Violence has been campaigning against corporal punishment since the 1980s, and is concentrating on lobbying for law reform to prohibit corporal punishment of children in the home and in private schools.

Australia

EPOCH Tasmania (End Physical Punishment of Children – Tasmania) campaigns for prohibition of corporal punishment in all settings, including through events at Parliament House, Tasmania.

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Human Rights Commission is campaigning for prohibition of parental physical punishment in ACT, with a discussion paper setting out a possible legislative model for prohibition released by the Children and Young People Commissioner in 2011.

China

Against Child Abuse in Hong Kong carries out advocacy on law reform to end all corporal punishment of children and involves children in campaigning. See our website for children for more information.

Fiji

Save the Children Fiji campaigns for explicit prohibition of corporal punishment of children in all settings and involves children in campaigning. See our website for children for more information.

Indonesia

Save the Children UK campaigns for a ban on corporal punishment, focussing on institutional care of children, and involves children in campaigning. See our website for children for more information.

Japan

Initiative for Ending Violence Against Children Japan (contact: contact@kodomosukoyaka.net or s.tazawa@kodomosukoyaka.net) advocates for ending all corporal punishment of children and promoting children's rights, including research on corporal punishment, promoting legal prohibition, and awareness-raising of non-violent and positive parenting.

Mongolia

Save the Children UK campaigns for law reform to prohibit corporal punishment, including through reporting to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and involves children in campaigning. See our website for children for more information.

Philippines

Save the Children Sweden and partners including SM-ZOTO (Samahan ng Mamamayan - Zone One Tondo Organization) advocate for an end to all corporal punishment of children and involve children in campaigning. See our website for children for more information.

Plan International is conducting a project called “Strengthening Civil Society in Eliminating Violence Against Children in the Philippines” which aims to increase the capacity of civil society organisations to reduce the prevalence of corporal punishment and promote non-violent discipline in homes, schools and other settings. Funded by the European Union and Plan Germany, the two-year project, which started in 2011, is implemented by Plan in partnership with the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population & Development and other bodies. Plan International is also promoting positive discipline among teachers in Cebu City as part of the Learn Without Fear campaign.

The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) is showing a free play about positive discipline. The play, “Rated PG”, was created to promote a culture of respect for the dignity of children and uphold their right to protection from all forms of violence, as part of the AR TS (Advocate Right to Safety) Zone for Children which champions children’s rights. The play was funded by Terre Des Hommes Germany and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and is playing July 2011 – June 2012.

Europe

The Council of Europe campaigns for abolition of corporal punishment in all settings, including the home, in the 47 Council of Europe member states, through the Raise your hand against smacking campaign.

Azerbaijan

The Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan and UNICEF are co-operating to create, present to Parliament and lobby for the draft Law on Protection of Children against of All Forms of Corporal Punishment.

Finland

Corporal punishment was prohibited in all settings, including the home, in 1983.The National Action Plan to Reduce Corporal Punishment of Children 2010-2015, produced by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, aims to continue and accelerate the progress in eliminating corporal punishment made over the past two decades.

France

OVEO (Observatory of Common Violence in Upbringing) advocates for prohibition of all corporal punishment, including through the “Initiative for the Prohibition of all Violence in Upbringing”, launched in November 2010 to support a private members’ bill which would prohibit corporal punishment in all settings.

The 27th FF2P (French Federation of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy) national conference, on 19-20 October 2011, was themed around “Attachment, Empathy and Violent Punishment”, and included a discussion on how to implement laws prohibiting corporal punishment.

In April 2011, the Fondation pour l’Enfance and Agence Publicis Conseil launched a TV and web campaign on ending the use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary measure, including a short film which seeks to show how parents who hit their children were often hit themselves as children.

Ireland

The Children’s Rights Alliance, a group of more than 90 NGOs advocates for equal legal protection from assault for children.

Italy

Save the Children Italia’s “Educazione senza violenza” (“Upbringing without violence”) campaign calls for law reform to ban all corporal punishment of children.

Lithuania

Save the Children Lithuania is campaigning for law reform to prohibit corporal punishment.

Macedonia

The First Children’s Embassy in the World – Megjasi promotes children’s rights, including the right to protection from all corporal punishment, through lobbying Government, awareness raising and reporting to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Switzerland

Stiftung Kinderschutz Schweitz runs a “Campagne publique pour une éducation non-violente” (“Public campaign for a non-violent upbringing”), which lobbies for a legal ban on all forms of corporal punishment of children, including in the home.

Turkey

The Ankara Child Rights Platform has an ongoing campaign to prohibit and eliminate all corporal punishment of children, including through lobbying Parliament.

United Kingdom

The Children are Unbeatable! Alliance campaigns for the UK to satisfy human rights obligations by modernising the law on assault to ensure children have the same protection as adults. With more than 600 organisations and many more individuals as signed-up supporters, it is the broadest campaign coalition ever assembled on a children's issue in the UK. Groups work in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Brazil

Rede Não Bata, Eduque! (Educate, Do Not Punish!), run by the Instituto Promundo aims to build a strong national movement against corporal punishment though educational activities and advocacy for law reform to prohibit all corporal punishment. In 2011, the network is supporting the progress of Bill 7672/2010, which would prohibit all corporal punishment, including by participating in committee hearings on the bill and in conferences and meetings on topics including early childhood and mental health.

Projeto Proteger – Saude e Comportamento Violento from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul works with victims of family violence, runs awareness raising seminars and workshops, and supports law reform to prohibit corporal punishment (contact Alice Bittencourt: alicebitt@yahoo.com.br, or rzflores@ufrgs.br).

Costa Rica

Corporal punishment was prohibited in all settings, including the home, in 2008. The Paniamor Foundation’s Violence Prevention Program aims to protect children from violence, including through promoting social recognition of physical punishment and humiliating treatment as a violation of fundamental rights of minors and a form of minority discrimination. Activities include the development and dissemination of public education materials and surveys on parenting patterns to monitor the implementation of the law; the first was carried out in 2010 and further surveys are planned for 2014 and 2019.

Venezuela

Corporal punishment was prohibited in all settings, including the home, in 2007. Cecodap works to raise awareness in homes and schools about the prohibition and about positive discipline, including by delivering training, as part of the “Passport for good treatment” campaign.

Iraq

The National Institute for Human Rights (contact Nihri_kirkuk@yahoo.com) provides education for teachers and parents on alternatives to corporal punishment.

Lebanon

Save the Children Sweden works in partnership with Government and civil society organisations to carry out awareness raising on child protection and teacher training, and to campaign for legal reform to prohibit all physical and other humiliating punishment.

Canada

The Repeal 43 Committee is a group of individual professionals, supported by many professional organisations. It lobbies for prohibition of all corporal punishment through repeal of Section 43 of the Criminal Code, which provides a legal defence for the use of “reasonable” corporal punishment.

United States

The Center for Effective Discipline, which works in partnership with the National Child Protection Training Center, co-ordinates the National Coalition to Abolish Corporal Punishment in Schools (NCACPS) and End Physical Punishment of Children (EPOCH-USA), which both lobby for legal reform to prohibit corporal punishment. The Center for Effective Discipline involves children in campaigning. See our website for children[http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/children/countries/usa.html] for more information.

Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education campaigns for legal prohibition of corporal punishment, including in the home, through providing information to professionals in the healthcare and educational fields and to parents and other childcare providers.

Unlimited Justice campaigns for prohibition of corporal punishment in schools in all US states by providing information to individuals about lobbying their representatives, including through the use of social media.

The Hitting Stops Here calls for legal prohibition of school corporal punishment.

Action for Children North Carolina advocates for prohibition of school corporal punishment in North Carolina, calling for bans in individual districts and a statewide ban.

The US Alliance to End the Hitting of Children, formed following the Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline held in Texas in 2011, brings together individuals, groups, and organizations to create a unified voice calling for, and working toward, the end of all forms of physical and emotional punishment against children, especially in schools and homes.

South Asia

SAIEVAC (South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children) is an intergovernmental body which aims to implement the recommendations of the UN Violence Study, including prohibition of all corporal punishment. South Asian states committed to prohibition following the Study in 2005. The eight states in South Asia cover a quarter of the global child population.

India

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights campaigns for prohibition of all corporal punishment, including in the home. In 2011, it examined 80 complaints on school corporal punishment (which was prohibited for children aged 6-14 in 2009), and has submitted a report on preparing guidelines for eliminating all forms of physical and emotional harassment in schools to the Government.

Plan India runs an initiative to make government schools effective and ensure a fear-free environment, including through the launch of a Positive Discipline Module toolkit in June 2011.

The SPARKE project, created for the Swedish Organization for Individual Relief by Cedar Woods Consulting Group and the College of Higher Tibetan Studies seeks to put a stop to the use of corporal punishment and thereby end physical, verbal and emotional violence against children by delivering teacher training on positive discipline and alternatives to corporal punishment in selected schools for Tibetan refugee children in India and Nepal.  In 2012, research on and action against corporal punishment is planned in 22 schools as part of phase III of the SPARKE project.

Maldives

Members of the Maldives NGO Federation work to create awareness on children’s rights and providing parenting skill education including the  importance of eliminating corporal punishments in all settings especially at home and school.

Pakistan

The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child and partners campaign for legal reform to prohibit all corporal punishment, including in the home.  In 2011 SPARC shared Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bills which it had drafted with four provincial governments, as well as advocating for prohibition by the federal government and carrying out awareness-raising work.

The National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN) in association with the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) and Defence for Children International (DCI) runs a campaign against inhuman and degrading sentences for child offenders. Children may lawfully be sentenced to death, life imprisonment and corporal punishment.

The Society for Empowering Human Resource (SEHER) campaigns against corporal punishment of children in Balochistan. In 2011-12, it is promoting a bill which would prohibit corporal punishment in schools and alternative care settings, providing training on positive discipline and children’s rights to children, parents, teachers and education authorities and running other awareness raising activities including a children’s media talk show and “Oath Camps” in public places at which people make oaths not to use corporal punishment.

Plan International and the PEF (Punjab Education Foundation), an organisation which encourages and promotes education in the private sector operating on a non-profit basis, run a joint project aimed at ending corporal punishment in schools which are financially supported by the PEF. The project, aimed at 2,500 schools, involves teacher training and setting up complaint boxes and committees of students, parents and teachers.

Sri Lanka

Save the Children provides support to the Department of Probation and Child Care Services to take forward the SAIEVAC (South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children) work plan, focussing on the prohibition of all corporal punishment, and advocates for law reform.