POSITION STATEMENT FROM THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN NETWORK TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN

Ending Corporal and Humiliating Punishment of Children and Promoting Positive Discipline

Background:
In some of our countries, as in countries in every region of the world, corporal punishment is legally sanctioned as a sentence in the penal system, in places of care or as a disciplinary measure in schools. All of our countries currently allow for the use of violence against children when committed by their parents.

In States where corporal punishment is prohibited in the education system, practitioners report ongoing use of physical and other forms of humiliating punishment against children. This is partly attributed to poor implementation of these legal reforms in the school system. Firstly, the continued use of corporal punishment by teachers is tacitly supported or encouraged by their peers and sometimes even by parents and caregivers. In the second instance, institutions rarely apply sanctions against teachers who continue to practice corporal punishment. Thirdly, teachers have not been provided with the knowledge, skills and support needed to implement new and appropriate measures of positive discipline in the classroom.

Corporal and humiliating punishment of children violates children’s human rights to physical integrity and human dignity, as upheld by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) protects children from “all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child”.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child released General Comment No. 8 (2006) on the issue of corporal punishment. This states that “Eliminating violent and humiliating punishment of children, through law reform and other necessary measures, is an immediate and unqualified obligation of state parties.”1 The General Comment also states that “There is no ambiguity…. Corporal punishment and other cruel and degrading forms of punishment are forms of violence and the State must take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to eliminate them.”2

The UN Secretary General’s Global Study on Violence Against Children conducted consultations with governments, civil society and children in all nine regions of the world including the East and Southern African Region, these consultations all called for a ban on all forms of corporal punishment of children. The final report on the study states that “…no violence against children is justifiable; all violence against children is preventable. There should be no more excuses”3 and calls for law reform to end legalized violence against children in all spheres by 20094.

Article 16 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child provides that: “States Parties to the present Charter shall take specific legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and especially physical or mental injury or abuse, neglect or maltreatment including sexual abuse while in the care of a parent, legal guardian or school authority….”. Although this article has not yet been interpreted by the African Committee, the similarity between the wording of this and Article 19 of the CRC suggests that the African Charter could be interpreted in the same way that Article 19 of the CRC has been, thereby protecting children from physical and mental abuse including all forms of corporal punishment. It must be noted that Article 1(2) of the African Charter provides that provisions in international Conventions that offer greater protection to children will supercede the African Charter, and will thus take precedence.

Children who participated in the nine regional young people’s consultations on the UN Study on Violence Against Children and in other consultations on this issue have repeatedly called for an end to the use of
1 General Comment No. 8 (2006) paragraph 22 p6
2 Ibid paragraph 18 p6
3 Report of the Independent Expert for the United Nations Study on Violence Against Chldren, paragraph 91 p24
4 Ibid paragraph 116 p32
corporal and humiliating punishment. They highlight the harm that this practice does to on them both physically and emotionally.

At its 8 World Assembly in 2006 different religious communities under the umbrella of Religions for Peace called on governments to prohibit all forms of violence against children, including corporal punishment, and committed to work actively in their communities to change attitudes and practices that perpetuate violence, including corporal punishment.

Our position:
We believe that children have a right to a life free from all forms of violence, including corporal and humiliating punishment. We take seriously children’s evidence on how corporal and humiliating punishment hurts them and wish to underscore the commitments made by governments in all nine regional consultations of the UN Study on Violence Against Children to prohibit corporal punishment of children in all settings.

The rights of adults to be free from violence is protected by criminal laws, yet children do not have equal protection under the law as they can be subjected to physical violence for the purposes of correction. We therefore insist that children must enjoy the same human rights protection that is afforded to adults. Further, children’s greater physiological, psychological and social vulnerability makes it critical that we ensure greater protection of children against all forms of violence.

We believe that countries in Southern Africa and all other regions of the world can no longer continue to hide behind religion, culture and tradition in order to perpetrate legalized violence against children.

There is an urgent need for all countries in the region to acknowledge their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child as all these countries have ratified the Convention.

We thus call on all states in the region to prohibit all forms of corporal and humiliating punishment of children by 2009 through implementing a legal prohibition on these practices in all spheres of children’s lives from penal systems to the education sector, places of care of children as well as in the home.

Instituting a legal prohibition is primarily a preventative measure. In addition to the ban, our governments must allocate resources for the implementation of educational programmes that aim to change attitudes towards children as rights bearers and develop the implementation of positive discipline methods by parents, caregivers and teachers. Further, resources must be allocated towards strengthening state support systems for children, parents and teachers.

We do not believe that the prosecution of parents is always in the best interests of the child and recognize that children do best in supportive and loving families. We thus call on states to put measures in place to ensure that parents have access to other supportive and corrective interventions as a diversion option and as a possible sentence where cases are prosecuted.

We support the aims of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, which calls on all governments to declare their opposition to corporal punishment of children in all contexts and to set a timetable for eliminating corporal punishment.

This statement is supported by the following organisations:
Childline South Africa +27 (0)31 563 5718
Children’s Rights Project, Community Law Centre, South Africa +27 (0)21 959 2950
DITSHWANELO, The Botswana Centre for Human Rights, Botswana +26 (0)7 390 6998
Education Policy Unit, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa +27 (0)11 717 3076
Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children info@endcorporalpunishment.org
NGO Coalition on the Rights of a Child, Lesotho +26 (0)62 231 2905
Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, South Africa +27 (0)21 712 2330
Save the Children Swaziland +26 (0)8 404 3255
Save the Children Sweden, Regional Office for Southern Africa +27 (0)12 342 0222
South African Council of Churches +27 (0)21 423 4261
Zambia Civic Education Association +26 (0)21 122 9641
Zambia Human Rights Commission +26 (0)96 767 386
Position Statement - Ending Corporal and Humiliating Punishment of Children and Promoting Positive Discipline
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15 June 2007

Gaborone