Ending legalised violence against children-2007

During the course of the UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence against Children, which sets the deadline for prohibition of all corporal punishment at 2009, progress towards universal prohibition has accelerated worldwide**. Since 2003, seven states have joined the list of those with legislation prohibiting all corporal punishment of children, including in the home, and at least 17 more have publicly committed themselves to full prohibition in the near future. In another seven states, legal reform is under way, although the governments have not explicitly declared a commitment to full prohibition. Many more states have introduced prohibition in one or more settings outside the home – in schools, penal systems or other institutions – or have made public commitments to law reform in these settings. By October 2007, 19 states worldwide have achieved full protection in legislation for children from all corporal punishment in all settings (representing 2.3% of the global child population). Over 100 states have prohibited all school corporal punishment by law. In juvenile justice systems, corporal punishment is unlawful as a sentence of the courts in 149 states and is prohibited as a punishment for internal disciplinary offences in penal institutions in 105 states. Corporal punishment is prohibited in all alternative care settings in 32 states (see full state-by-state analysis, page 16). If every state listed on pages 16-18 as having made progress towards prohibition in the home, or having made a clear commitment, sees it through, then 45 states will have complete prohibition (16.5% of the global child population), extending full legal protection from corporal punishment to over 310 million more children than at present. *The world is now moving rapidly towards acceptance of children’s equal rights to respect for their human dignity and physical integrity and to equal protection under the law. But there is a long way to go and it demands strong and continuous advocacy to achieve this unacceptably overdue reform for children.