The Positive Impact of Prohibition of Corporal Punishment on Children's Lives - Messages from Research

The positive impact of prohibition of corporal punishment on children's lives - Messages from research

Children have a right to legal protection from all corporal punishment, in the family home and all other settings of their lives. This human right is recognized under international treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child:1 states are legally obliged to enact laws to prohibit corporal punishment and to work to raise awareness of and implement these laws. Commitments under the SDG framework also require states to take action to eliminate all violence against children including corporal punishment, as measured by target 16.2.1.

Legal protection from all violent punishment is key not only to protecting children from violence but also to raising their social status. Laws which allow adults to inflict violence on children in the name of “discipline” represent a view of children as subordinate to adults, possessions of their parents rather than people in their own right. Reforming laws to ensure that children can no longer be lawfully subjected to violent punishment marks a turning point in society’s relationship with children, signaling recognition of children as human beings and rights holders. In enhancing children’s position in society, it advances all their other rights. Research has made visible the links between so called “moderate” corporal punishment and more severe physical violence against children, illuminating how prohibiting corporal punishment is a basic requirement for child protection systems and a key element of preventing all violence against children. The large body of research on the harmful impact of corporal punishment illustrates how prohibiting corporal punishment is essential not only for children’s right to protection from violence, but also for their rights to health, development and education.

Details on this research, which can be used to support rights-based advocacy for prohibition, are available in End Corporal Punishment’s review of research on the impact of and associations with corporal punishment, available at endcorporalpunishment.org/resources/research/ Research is not necessary to “prove” the need for law reform. However, research on the issue can be useful for advocacy, and the message from research is very clear: prohibition, accompanied by government-led population-level measures to raise awareness of and implement the prohibition, is essential in eliminating corporal punishment. This paper summarizes research showing reductions in the approval and use of corporal punishment in some countries which have reformed their laws to prohibit all corporal punishment.

Research showing reductions in the approval and use of violent punishment after prohibition

Progress towards universal prohibition of all corporal punishment is fast accelerating. More than a third of UN member states have now prohibited corporal punishment in all settings including the family home. But research comparing the prevalence of and attitudes towards corporal punishment before and after law reform is available in only a few of these. In some states, no research has directly asked children about their experiences; in others, different questions or different samples have been used in studies carried out before and after prohibition, making strict comparison between data difficult. Nonetheless, the evidence of changes in attitudes and practice is strong. This section summarizes research showing these changes in some countries which have reformed their laws to prohibit all corporal punishment of children.