The injustice and harm caused to children by Corporal Punishment and other humiliating forms of punishment is becoming increasingly visible. The more visible it is, the more adults recognise that it is unacceptable for children to enjoy less legal protection from being hit and humiliated than they, as adults, do.
Today, real advances are being made worldwide in challenging and putting an end to the legalised violence against children. The UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence against Children provides a good context for persuading states to take the necessary steps to change their laws and link legal reforms with raising awareness of children’s right to protection: the time to act is now.
An essential part of the process of change is researching the existing laws that allow Corporal Punishment. The Andean Commission of Jurists has done a fine job of reviewing in detail the situation across Latin America. Its review of cases has revealed how courts and child protection systems tend to try and make artificial distinctions between child “abuse” and Corporal Punishment.
There can be no such distinction. There are laws in every country to protect adults from being assaulted; therefore, children must have equal protection. Some people argue that children are different. But their differences – their smallness, their fragility and their developmental state – all suggest that they need more, not less, protection from violence, both physical and mental.
Legal reforms to end Corporal Punishment of children within the family must be implemented with care. Prosecuting and penalising parents is very seldom in the best interests of their children. So while the law must send a very clear message that hitting children is as unlawful as hitting adults, the law must be enforced in a sensitive manner. Prosecution of parents and other formal types of intervention in the family should proceed only when they are necessary to protect the child and when they appear to be in the best interests of the child affected. Guidance will be required for all those involved with families and with the child protection system. To this effect, all legal reforms related in one way or another to the family and the child protection system must be properly focused in this process.
Once the law is clear that all forms of Corporal Punishment are prohibited, all those working with children and families can help get across the message that hitting children is unlawful and that there are far better and more positive ways of disciplining children. Where the law still condones Corporal Punishment, or has nothing to say on the subject, attempts to move parents and others on to positive forms of discipline are fatally undermined – and so is effective child protection.
The results of the Andean Commission of Jurists’ Study should be taken as a positive challenge to states to swiftly review and reform their laws so as to give children the equal protection that is long overdue.
London, April 24, 2005
Peter Newell
Joint Coordinator, Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children
