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[27 November 2006] - There is no such thing as an acceptable form of physical punishment, said Peter Newell, Coordinator of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, at the national launch of the UN Study on Violence against Children in Taiwan [Province of China] last week. Newell presented the findings of the study at the International Seminar on Eliminating Corporal Punishment of Children in Taipei yesterday. "The study should mark a turning point - an end to adult justification of violence against children, whether accepted as `tradition' or disguised as `discipline,'" Newell said. The comprehensive global study was commissioned in 2001 by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and recommended a universal prohibition on all forms of physical punishment, Newell said in a speech yesterday. Despite the fact that Taiwan was unable to join the 192 nations that ratified the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child, Newell told the audience that he hoped Taiwan "will take a lead in this region" on the issue of corporal punishment. Two Taiwanese children participated in the study's East Asia and Pacific's Regional Launch. Corporal punishment in schools is currently forbidden by the Ministry of Education, but corporal punishment of children is not prohibited by law. "Some people cannot give up on the concept of physical discipline," Children's Bureau Director-General Huang Pi-hsia said at the seminar. "`If you don't beat them, how will they learn?' is an attitude that is all too common," Huang said. Despite the fact that public attitudes in Taiwan widely condone milder forms of corporal punishment, Newell believes that the government needs to take a leadership role in eradicating the behavior. "There needs to be a clear statement in the criminal law on assault to the effect that the law applies equally to assaults on children, whether by parents, other carers, teachers or anyone else," Newell said. The two-day seminar was sponsored by the Humanistic Education Foundation. It continues today with participants from around the world.