Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Call to end all corporal punishment of children (20 October 2005)

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Summary: [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.

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WASHINGTON DC, 20 October 2005
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Save the Children Sweden is calling on the Inter-American human rights system to declare all corporal punishment of children unlawful.
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At a hearing today in Washington, a delegation led by Save the Children Sweden and the Andean Commission of JuristsĀ  requestedĀ  the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to declare all corporal punishment of children a breach of their human rights.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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ā€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 childrenā€, said Denise Stuckenbruck, from Save the Children Sweden.
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There is a growing consensus globally amongst human rights monitoring bodies that corporal punishment is a breach of childrenā€™s human rights. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, other UN human rights treaty bodies, regional human rights mechanisms and high level courts in many countries have concluded that states must eliminate physical punishment.
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Paulo Pinheiro, a Member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, is leading the current UN Secretary-Generalā€™s Study on Violence against children. Delivering his progress report to the UN General Assembly last week, he said ā€œViolence against children can never be justified. It is perverse that children should still have less legal protection from being hit and humiliated than adultsā€.
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ā€Children have had to wait a long time for confirmation of their equal human right to legal and other protection from being hit, hurt and humiliated by their parents and carers. We hope the Inter-American Commission will help to speed reform on this issue, which is of such fundamental and symbolic importance to childrenā€™s status as rights holders, as well as to their protectionā€ said Peter Newell, Global Initiative to End all Corporal Punishment of Children, also at the hearing before the Commission today.Ā  Ā Ā 
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For further information, contact Denise Stuckenbruck on +55 21 8105 8593, or +511 9991 3842
Email: denise.stuckenbruck@scslat.org

Background information/Notes to Editors:

  • Corporal punishment includes hitting a child with the hand or with an object, kicking, shaking, or throwing a child, pinching or pulling their hair, forcing a child to stay in an uncomfortableĀ  or undignified position, or to take excessive physical exercise; burning or scarring a child.
    Humiliating punishment takes various forms such as verbal abuse, ridicule, isolation, or ignoring a child.Ā 
  • Save the Childrenā€™s work is underpinned by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and on the interpretation of Article 19 made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as one that protects children from all forms of violence ā€“ including physical and psychological punishment. Save the Children works in 10 countries in Latin America by carrying out awareness-raising, capacity-building and advocacy programmes.Ā 
  • For more than two years, the Andean Commission of Jurists has been investigating existing Latin American legislation on violence against children ā€“ particularly in the home, in schools, in the penal system and in alternative care institutions ā€“ in order to identify the positions of different countries on the physical and psychological punishment of children. The result is a highly detailed analysis of the existing legal frameworks in 20 states within the region, accompanied by recommendations for those states that seek to take a step forward in protecting their children from all forms of violence. The report is available at the following: http://www.scslat.org/poniendofin/index_en.php
  • Save the Childrenā€™s submission to the UN Secretary-Generalā€™s Study on Violence against children, "Ending Physical and Humiliating Punishment of children - Making it Happen", draws on prevalence and work in progress in all the regions, including research into children's own views and experiences, situation analyses on the laws allowing physical and humiliating punishment, advocacy of law reform and public and parent education. The report finds that physical and humiliating punishments transmit educational messages which can be harmful to the development of the child.

* Global Initiative to End all Corporal Punishment of Children,
visit: http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/

** Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru

Visit Save the Children Swedenā€™s website at: www.scslat.org

For more information about the UN Secretary-Generalā€™s Study on Violence Against Children, go to: www.childrenandviolence.org
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