Update: The Secretary-General's Study on Violence against Children

24 October 2005 - Update: The Secretary-General's Study on Violence against Children Contents:

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- GENERAL ASSEMBLY: Pinheiro Presents Progress Report

- CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: Side Event at the UN General Assembly

- INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: Hearing on Corporal Punishment

- FIJI: Pacific Consultation on Violence against Children

- RESOURCES: Latest on the CRIN Violence Website

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GENERAL ASSEMBLY: Pinheiro Presents Progress Report

[NEW YORK, 14 September] - During the 60th Session of the UN General Assembly taking place at the UN Headquarters, the Third Committee heard updates on children's rights issues, including the presentation of the progress report of the Secretary-General's (SG) Study on Violence Against Children, an update on achievements since the 2002 Special Session on Children and an update of the Special Representative of the SG's for Children and Armed Conflict.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the Independent Expert leading the Study on Violence against Children, in presenting his progress report, gave an overview of the nine regional consultations that had taken place around the world. He highlighted some of the positive outcomes that had emerged from these, such as concrete follow-up activities developed by the Council of Europe, the organisation of an international forum on child development in Beijing, and the establishment of a network of journalists in West and Central Africa for reporting on children's issues from a rights perspective.

He said there was a growing conscience to address the issue of violence against children, however, legal provisions in many countries still tolerate various forms of violence against children. "Violence, Pinheiro said, "can never be justified, it is perverse that children should still have less legal protection from being hit and humiliated than adults. However, violence persists under the guise of discipline or tradition".

Full story

Report

Paulo Pinheiro's speech

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CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: Side Event at the UN General Assembly

[NEW YORK, 17 September 2005] - A panel discussion on ending corporal punishment was organised today at the UN General Assembly by UNESCO, in collaboration with Save the Children and UNICEF. Over one hundred people, including young people, Ambassadors to the UN, other government representatives and members of civil society organisations attended the event.

Ambassador Moushira Khattab, Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, who was chairing the meeting, explained that the discussion was an opportunity to highlight some of the concerns about corporal punishment and to propose options for a way forward. She gave an overview of the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the issue of violence against children in general, but also on the Committee's position with regards to corporal punishment.

Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro explained the misapprehension often encountered regarding the incidence of some forms of violence, such as corporal punishment, where it is often invisible, especially when it occurs in the home; "unfortunately it is the invisibility of some forms that make them prevalent, corporal punishment is one of them", he explained.

Full story

Save the Children Press release

More information about UNESCO's report, Eliminating Corporal Punishment: The Way Forward

Recommendations on corporal punishment from the regional consultations

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INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: Hearing on Corporal Punishment

[WASHINGTON DC, 20 October 2005] - Save the Children Sweden is calling on the Inter-American human rights system to declare all corporal punishment of children unlawful. At a hearing in Washington, a delegation led by Save the Children Sweden and the Andean Commission of Jurists requested the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to declare all corporal punishment of children a breach of their human rights.

The petitioners presented the results of research carried out in the region and requested that the Commission seeks an advisory opinion from the Inter-American Human Rights Court. If the Court accepts the petition and issues an advisory opinion which confirms that states have legal obligations to prohibit all forms of corporal punishment, this should speed up the process of law reform across the Americas.

Save the Children believes that physical and humiliating punishment is a form of violence against children and a violation of their right to physical integrity and dignity. In many countries, it remains the one form of assault against a human being that is condoned by law. So far, only 17 states have granted children protection by law from all corporal punishment, including in the family. No countries in the Americas have yet abolished this form of violence, but already four have prohibition bills before their parliaments.

"The law should send a clear message to society that hitting children is as wrong and as unlawful as hitting anyone else. We cannot hope to reduce the very high levels of violence in our region while we continue to tolerate this most common and accepted form of violence against children", said Denise Stuckenbruck, from Save the Children Sweden.

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FIJI: Pacific Consultation on Violence Against Children

The Pacific region held a sub-regional Consultation on Violence against Children in Fiji from 26 until 28 September 2005, that aimed at building on the outcomes of the Bangkok Consultation in June 2005, while discussing ways and priorities in addressing the problem in the Pacific context specifically.

The event, which was preceded by a one-day Children's Forum held on 24 September 2005, was jointly organized by a Pacific working group composed of UNICEF Pacific, Save the Children Fiji, the Fiji Ministry for Women, Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation and the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre. The Children's Forum - 24 September 2005

Due to time and funding constraints, there were only nine children (seven from the larger Fiji Island and two from the nearby Island of Rabi which comes under Fiji's jurisdiction) who participated. The group however fairly represented the great diversity that exists in Fiji. The age of the participants ranged between 15 and 18 years.

The two Under-18 Delegates who represented Fiji in the Bangkok Consultation in June, were peer facilitators at the Children's Forum on 24 September, and joined the other 9 U-18 Delegates at the Pacific Consultation.

UNICEF Pacific funded the Children's Forum, while Save the Children Fiji and other members of the Pacific Working group helped prepare the U-18 Delegates. Drawing on the Minimum Standards for an ethical and meaningful participation of children in international events used in Bangkok in June, one-on-one prepping was carried out for the U-18 delegates and their guardians. The process involved a one-week meeting with the U-18 selected (facilitated by the school principals and where possible the school counsellor) and the selected guardians

More

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RESOURCES: Latest on the CRIN Violence website

Legal Framework on Corporal Punishment in Latin America, Save the Children Sweden - Regional Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean.

This online report has been built as an interactive website and allows to browse through details of legislation in 20 countries in the Americas on the issue of corporal punishment.

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Global Future: Special Edition on the UN Study on Violence against Children, World Vision

The Independent Expert leading the UN study, Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, and other contributors to this edition explain the background, rationale and hoped-for outcomes of the study. Other articles focus on specific aspects of violence against, or by, children, and measures being taken to tackle them.

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Corporal Punishment: Briefing for the UN General Assembly - October 2005, Global Initiative to End all Corporal Punishment of Children.

Worldwide progress towards eliminating corporal punishment: all regions support action to end legalised violence against children.

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Discipline and Punishment of Children: a rights-based review of laws, attitudes and practices in East Asia and the Pacific. Save the Children Sweden Southeast Asia and the Pacific Regional submission to the UN Secretary General's Global Study on Violence against Children.

Concentrating on corporal punishment, the document reviews available information on legislation and practice, providing a state-of-the-art account of what is known, and also identifying knowledge gaps in 19 countries in the East Asia Pacific region.

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The Rest of their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch

The report is the first national study examining the practice of trying children as adults and sentencing them to life in adult prisons without the possibility of parole. The report is based on two years of research and on an analysis of previously uncollected federal and state corrections data. The data allowed to track state and national trends in LWOP sentencing through mid-2004 and to analyse the race, history and crimes of young offenders.

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Resource Website on Street Children, UNESCO, Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education

The main objective of this website is to facilitate knowledge sharing between professionals and others working with children in difficult circumstances, especially street-children. The website contains resource materials, country information and a discussion forum.

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For more information, or to submit information, contact:
Veronica Yates, CRIN
C/o Save the Children
1, St John's Lane, London EC1M 4AR, UK
Tel: +44 2012 6865
Email: [email protected]
Visit: http://www.crin.org/violence/index.asp

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