Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: The following are the recommendations of the
working group on physical and psychological
punishment, from this morning's session. All
the recommeddations were adopted by
consensus by the consultation, and reported
by young delegate Pramudi from Sri Lanka.
She prefaced them by saying "Children are
children now and not just for the future".
PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PUNISHMENT IN THE HOME
Legal Actions:
Developing specific and clear laws which urgently, explicitly prohibit all
violence against children (VAC) including physical and psychological
punishment in the family and other settings
Repeal any existing defenses that can be used to justify physical and
psychological punishment
Harmonisation of national laws on VAC with CRC
Establish national Protection Services that are child friendly and
mechanisms to enforce and implement legislation
Social reforms:
Strengthening existing social, safety nets
Awareness raising and advocacy on the rights of the child to protection
and laws and services that protect the rights of the child
Institutional Structures
Sensitisation and capacity building for law enforcement officials,
educational professionals, health professionals, faith leaders and
community elders
Strengthening the structures that provide services to children
Utilising and strengthening the existing family and community support
mechanisms and structures that protect children
Policies and programmes
Make available to the community (parents, teachers, faith leaders, other
professionals) information and training on non-violent child rearing
alternatives and techniques of positive discipline
Research and Monitoring
Prevalence studies
Database
Research on the effectiveness of the CPS (child protection services)
PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS
1. Legal Reforms and Recommendations
Pass laws banning corporal punishment and effective rules for
implementation of the law
Government should increase budget allocations on education
Teacher curriculum should include training on positive discipline methods
Child participation in parliaments, when passing laws affecting students
and consultations
Re-align methodologies and structures based on a national cultural basis
Link systems between policies and children
Deal with congestion in schools
2. Other Reforms and Recommendations
Expand counselling services/social work in schools
Involvement of parent-teacher association
Child Friendly learning and spaces
Child participation in setting school rules
Address the causes of behaviour of teachers and students
Life skills programmes to empower students
Youth forums on a regular basis
Research and monitoring
Forums among student leaders
Attendance
Drop out Rates
PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PUNISHMENT IN INSTITUTIONS
Need to increase awareness about CRC
Need to have effective laws that are effectively implemented and
effectively monitored
Review to address gaps between present regional laws and CRC and
other human rights instruments
Need to look more at implementation development- including human
resource development
Have independent monitoring bodies with powerful base- Need
ombudsmen as deterrence and to monitor abuse
Training on child friendliness across the board in all institutions to
sensitise workers
People who work to help victims of abuse should be approachable
Need to protect victims from stigmatisation and further abuse that may
happen as they speak out
Have toll free Help Lines and other media that provide ways to report
violence
Use different mediums like email, etc, to have more accessibility by
organisations helping children
When the NGOs and CBOs look into matters not just of counselling, but
also to keep track of perpetrators: don’t just focus on victims
Institutions (especially police) to have special units to deal with children
Network between all the levels of government down to grassroots
More services should be available to match increased awareness and
reporting. Otherwise people will get frustrated and not speak out again.
Judiciary should be active, responsive and strong
Impunity should be broken
Have intermediary bodies as a go-between (eg.- ombudsmen) to
monitor and deter
Restorative justice approach in dealing with children in conflict with the
law
Divert children to other services rather than criminalizing them by putting
them in the juvenile justice system
Have guidelines and protocols in place so that institutions know what to
do (which must adhere to UN standards of practice and guidelines)
Research good practices that currently exist. Disseminate info on them
between countries.
Regular, continued monitoring
Donor attention to focus on services and not only identification of issues,
etc.
Protection for people working with children
PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PUNISHMENT IN THE WORKPLACE
(No members of the Physical and Psychological Punishment group
volunteered to talk about this subject because they did not feel they had
expertise in this area)
Children should not be in the workplace- though reality is different, so
we need to work with it. But our ultimate principle is to stop child labour.
Have a minimum age
Define Hazardous work that children cannot do in line with international
standards
Have alternative places where children can stay while parents work.
PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PUNISHMENT IN THE COMMUNITY-
All laws need to match CRC
Role of public litigation in child protection and prevention of violence
against children needs to be seen as advocacy tool.
Empirical data required is to support advocacy. Need good investigations
for this.
Adoption procedures need reform and legal documentation. There are
trafficking dangers and children’s rights issues to be aware of. Not every
child can be given adoption because it’s prohibited. There is a need for
laws and policies to ensure safe adoption and follow up
Need legal definitions of punishment, and violence against children
Need child friendly procedural laws. Laws that exist cover hurt and
insult. But legal procedures need to be child friendly.
Need children to be able to easily report to mechanisms- that they
understand where to go and who they can go to,
Children should not come into contact with the police and the court in
the first place
Need for a strong police information campaign attacking myths and
mindsets
Institutional Structures
Counsellors in schools, trauma counselling wide spread.
Capacity building
Structures like the Child Welfare Commission in Afghanistan and the
National Child Protection Authority in Sri Lanka need to be promoted acrss
the region
Structures alone not enough- need capacity building for people working
with chidlren
Monitoring mechanisms at district levels that connect to ministries
Children need to be part of existing programs on rehab and recovery.
Children have not been integrated specifically here.
Medical Treatment and care has to be integral part of recovery.
Need to pay attention to disabled children in particular in all programmes
and policies and services involved
Hiv/AIDS and discrimination needs to be looked into (no time here).
Prevention: need for strong public information campaign which would
raise awareness
Training of teachers, parents,
Human rights education for judiciary and police.
Prevention approach must address some of the larger problems such as
impact of media, substance abuse, globalisation… ->need for convergence
of services.
Legal reform- criminal liability of the community needs to be established
and
Awareness of laws required for perpetrators.
Prevention
CF school curriculum.
Child protection issues must be integrated at the panchayat level or
other decentralised levels
Compulsory birth registration
Registration marriages
Areas of research
on impact of media,
affect of alcoholism
displacement, migration,
impact of disasters on children
situations of stress that increase children’s vulnerability to all forms of
violence.