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Summary: This Campaigns Manual guides and supports child rights advocates in challenging the legality and practice of corporal punishment of children in all settings. All over the world, children are hit and hurt by adults responsible for their care and education. In a minority of countries – though far too many – children in conflict with the law may be sentenced by the courts to corporal punishment when they are convicted of a crime. Corporal punishment – the most pervasive and too often legally endorsed form of punishment – is a serious breach of children's rights, as human beings, to respect for their human dignity and physical and mental integrity. It breaches their rights to protection from all forms of violence and to equal protection under the law. A comprehensive new guide published jointly by the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children and Save the Children Sweden aims to support child rights advocates in challenging the legality and practice of corporal punishment of children in all settings – in the home, in schools, and in justice and care settings. The Campaigns Manual: Ending corporal punishment and other cruel and degrading punishment of children through law reform and social change is organised into six main sections: Section 1, "Understanding the problem of corporal punishment", defines corporal punishment and outlines the reasons why it should be prohibited and eliminated, focusing on the human rights imperative. It covers existing research on prevalence and on the negative effects of corporal punishment and why its prohibition is the only safe foundation for child protection, and provides counter arguments to claims commonly made by those in favour of corporal punishment. Section 2, "Analysing the situation and campaigning for reform", explains how to carry out a rights-based analysis of the situation, including a review of the laws relating to corporal punishment, finding out about its prevalence, identifying obstacles to reform, and using this information to set priorities for action. It addresses how to include children in this work. Section 3, "Ending the legality of corporal punishment", focuses on promoting law reform to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, including the home. It describes how to draft prohibiting legislation, how to develop a strategy to promote law reform, how to work with government and parliament, and how legal action can be taken to push for reform. It also covers how prohibition works in practice and the importance of understanding this in promoting law reform. Section 4, "Ending the practice of corporal punishment", addresses how to change people's attitudes towards, and use of, corporal punishment, providing detailed guidance on developing strategies to achieve this in the home and in schools. Section 5, "Assessing the effectiveness of the campaign", explains why it is important to evaluate the campaign and how to do this. Section 6, "Resources", lists available resources which will be useful to support campaigning for law reform and for behavioural and attitudinal change, many of which are freely available on the internet. For hard copies email Mali Nilsson, Save the Children Sweden, at [email protected] Further information
Owner: This manual was published jointly by the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children and Save the Children Swedenpdf: http://www.crin.org/docs/Campaigns_Manual_2010.pdf