Barbara Litzlbeck
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 30 2005 (IPS) – Fifteen years after the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, only 17 governments in the world have passed laws explicitly barring the use of corporal punishment at home.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which came into force in 1990, has now been signed by 140 countries. The United States is the only signatory that has not yet ratified the treaty.
Concerning violence at home and in institutions, article 19 of the convention requires states to protect children from all forms of physical and mental violence while in the care of parents or others.
Still today, many countries who consider themselves as very child-friendly, for example the British government and France, actually don t have a law which prohibits parents from using corporal punishment at home, said Mali Nilsson, chair of The International Save the Children Alliance Task Group on Physical and Humiliating Punishment.
They still use the defence of reasonable chastisement in their law, which actually goes against the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which almost all countries have ratified, Nilsson said.
The International Save the Children Alliance is the world s largest independent global movement for children, with 30 member organisations around the world and representatives in over 100 countries.
Related IPS Articles
In interviews with 189 children aged four to 11 during a consultation on law reform concerning corporal punishment, Save the Children in Northern Ireland found that more than four out of five used one or more of these words about being hit by an adult: hurt, sad, sore, upset, unhappy, unloved, heartbroken, awful .
The Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors the implementation of the convention, asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001 to conduct an in-depth international study on violence against children.
Besides analysing forms, causes and impacts of violence directed at children and young people, the study is mandated to promote ideas for action to prevent and reduce violence against children.
In February 2003, Annan appointed Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro as an independent expert to prepare the study, whose major report will be published in 2006.
I have been struck by the fact that children and adults are not accorded equal protection from assault and humiliation, and that ensuring safety for children is a low priority for many states, despite the fact that they have accepted international treaties which require them to guarantee their safety, Pinheiro recently told the U.N. General Assembly in presenting the progress report for the study.
Violence against children may never be justified, whether on the basis of discipline or in the guise of tradition. Children are different from adults, but this difference calls for more, not less, protection in laws, policies and programmes, as well as significant investment in the prevention of violence against them.
Some 110 countries have introduced laws against the use of violence at school. Beyond the physical impact, children often suffer tremendously from the mental trauma of corporal punishment.
Some children said to me, even if my parents beat me harsher, the humiliation of having to stand in front of a class, pull off my trousers when my teacher is beating me, has worse effects on me, Nilsson told IPS.
For schoolteachers, it s important to understand the effects of violence and understand that a student living without fear of being beaten by a teacher does better in school. It s crucial to teachers to be taught alternatives to corporal punishment.
Legislation is only one part of the solution to stop parents and teachers using corporal punishment. A law together with awareness raising is the way to prohibit parents from using corporal punishment, said Nilsson.
Sweden is a good example, as the first country in the world to prohibit corporal punishment in 1979. The law coincided with a massive public information campaign funded by the Department of Justice.
The ban was well-publicised by the media and the government gave out a 16-page colour pamphlet explaining the reasoning behind the law and providing alternatives to corporal punishment to every household with a young child.
These pamphlets were also distributed through medical offices and child care centres, and translated into all immigrant languages. For two months, information about the law was also printed on milk cartons, to ensure that it was present at mealtimes when parents and children could discuss the issue together.
According to the Swedish Ombudsman for Children, corporal punishment as form of discipline has substantially decreased since the law s passage.
When comparing figures in interviews with parents between the years 1980 and 2000, the results show, that corporal punishment has decreased significantly, especially in regard to striking a child with one s fist, with a blunt object or giving the child a so-called good hiding , says the web page of the Swedish Ombudsman for Children.
Adults have to understand that prohibiting the use of corporal punishment is not about taking away their power, it s about enhancing their responsibilities and accountability towards the ones in our society who are the most vulnerable, Nilsson told IPS.