Towards the universal prohibition of all violent punishment of children

Save the Children, in collaboration with the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children and the Churches’ Network for Non-Violence, organised in Bangkok, May 2008, the First Global Workshop on achieving legal reforms to prohibit corporal punishment. This report captures in some measure the deep commitment of the participants to making children’s right to equal protection a reality, their determination to develop and follow the national strategies for law reform and the information and experience exchanged during the dialogues. Synthesizing the presentations made by the key speakers with the issues raised in discussion and the experiences brought to the workshop by the participants, the report includes sections on: – the elements of legal reform and details of global progress to date; – how to get laws into and through parliament, with examples of the experiences in New Zealand, Costa Rica, the Philippines and Romania; – how to engage children in the law reform process, including examples from Venezuela, Kenya and South Africa; – progress in gaining faith-based support for prohibition; – implementation of prohibition in the home and other settings, with examples from Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa and Romania; – the use of legal action and regional and international human rights mechanisms; and – national lobbying to promote prohibition and elimination of corporal punishment. The report also includes answers to frequently asked questions about prohibition, an analysis of the legality of corporal punishment in all settings in all countries, a regional analysis of ratification of international and regional complaints/communications mechanisms, and information on useful resources.