CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: New handbook to support faith-based approaches to ending corporal punishment

Religion is a major force all over the world. Religious leaders influence the lives of individuals, communities and societies; through religious and secular bodies they are involved in decisions made at national, regional and international levels. Religious belief and teaching impacts directly on children’s lives. It is vitally important to work with religious leaders and faith-based groups in prohibiting and eliminating corporal punishment.

Those in favour of corporal punishment often give reasons for their views based on their faith or interpretations of religious texts. But there is growing support among religious leaders of all faiths and all over the world for law reform to prohibit corporal punishment and faith-based promotion of positive, non-violent parenting.

Packed with positive examples and links to resources, this new handbook published jointly by the Churches’ Network for Non-violence, the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children and Save the Children Sweden, aims to help those working with and within religious communities to harness faith-based support for reform in their efforts to end corporal punishment of children. It includes the following sections:

Section 1, Introduction, describes the links between religion and corporal punishment of children.

Section 2, Corporal punishment of children – a global problem, discusses the prevalence of corporal punishment and its impact on children’s lives, children’s perspectives, the importance of legal reform and progress towards reform worldwide. It includes examples of the involvement of religious leaders.

Section 3, Children’s right to protection from corporal punishment, looks at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and how the guiding principles of the Convention are relevant to religious practice. A brief overview of the UN Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children is given.

Section 4, Religious perspectives, discusses the challenges posed by faith-based opposition to corporal punishment and ways of responding to them. It looks at faith-based support for prohibiting corporal punishment and gives a brief account of some of the teachings about children and non-violence from the major world religions, including the Golden Rule.

Section 5, Working with faith groups to achieve reform, and Section 6, Taking action through religious leaders’ existing roles and functions, address ways of engaging with religious leaders and organisations and developing multi-religious support and partnership at every level. They discuss ways in which the diverse roles and functions of religious leaders provide unique opportunities for action towards prohibiting and eliminating corporal punishment. Examples of faith-based initiatives are included, together with further suggestions for taking action.

Section 7, Resources, provides information on further resources relevant to each main section in the handbook, including links to downloadable resources and useful websites.

Further Information:

• Ending corporal punishment of children: A handbook for working with and within religious communities (2011), with a Foreword by Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative to the UN Secretary General on Violence against Children, can be obtained from www.endcorporalpunishment.org, or for a hard copy (limited number) write to [email protected]