Corporal punishment is inflicted on children in nearly all societies and cultures. Its legal and social acceptance is a potent symbol of children’s perceived low status. Although it is just as violent to hit a child as it is to hit an adult, by 2012, only 33 states worldwide had recognized this in legislation. In the remaining 165 states, children can be legally subjected to violent, humiliating and degrading punishment by those whose role it is to take care of them. But all children have a right to legal protection from all violent punishment, however “light”, wherever they are and whoever the perpetrator. This report provides guidance on achieving law reform which gives children in alternative care and day care the protection from all forms of corporal and other cruel and degrading punishment that is their absolute right.
The report aims to accelerate the prohibition and elimination of all corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading punishment in all alternative care and day care – supporting its universal prohibition and elimination in all settings of children’s lives. It is designed to be used to promote prohibition, including by raising awareness about children’s right to protection, supporting the use of human rights mechanisms in campaigning for law reform and providing guidance on the drafting and implementation of legislation which prohibits all corporal punishment.
©Save the Children
