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[CAIRO, 29 June 2005] – On the second day of the regional Globally, 110 countries have prohibited corporal punishment in schools, Newell explained that it was not possible to consider this issue sector by “Hitting children is wrong and the law should say so now” he continued, “and A speaker from Tunisia said that legislation was paramount, but there was Newell explained that the cultural perception that it is accepted needs to be For more information, click
consultation on violence against children, Peter Newell, Global Initiative to
End All Corporal Punishment of Children, presented a review of legislation on
corporal punishment in the region.
including 13 in this region. Seventy-five countries still allow whipping or
caning in prisons, including ten in this region. However, all states have
ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, so all must move quickly to
ban all corporal punishment.
sector, banning in schools and not in the family makes creates double standards.
“It is completely wrong that children should have waited the longest to be
protected from being hit. Violence is no longer routinely accepted in many
societies, and we must accord to children the same respect.”
I hope that governments in this region, will follow that of other regions and
commit themselves to explicit prohibition of all corporal punishment in all
settings”
also a need to educate educators and provide them with alternative mechanisms
for disciplining, as alternative mechanisms are non existent in the Arab world.
A speaker from Jordan explained that the use of corporal punishment by parents
derives from the obligation of parents to bring up their children. “Where is the
discretionary power when the provision is implemented of parents’ right to
discipline their child” she asked.
challenged, “we cannot draw a line, that would create double standards,
discipline is important, but [corporal punishment] is not part of discipline, it
is a lesson in bad behaviour” he ended.
here.