Global Initiative to close this year

STATEMENT – THE FUTURE OF THE GLOBAL INITIATIVE

 

It is with considerable sadness that the trustees of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children announce that, after a long period of internal deliberations, the decision has been made to close the organisation in September 2020.

Like many small, advocacy-oriented organisations around the world, we have experienced serious challenges in securing adequate funding for our work, and have, for a significant amount of time, taken a wide range of steps to mitigate this situation. Unfortunately, despite the support of some of our long-time partners and persistent efforts from our team, we have been unable to secure sufficient resources to sustain the organisation’s work beyond 2020.

In order to protect the staff’s interests to the best of our ability and to adequately transfer our knowledge and technical resources to partners who might take the legacy of the Global Initiative (GI) forward, we will be closing all operations over the next few months.

We understand that, as our long-term supporters, you will be surprised and equally saddened by this news. If you would like any additional information about the situation, please do not hesitate to contact the Director, Anna Henry on anna@endcorporalpunishment.org.  We particularly welcome contact from organisations or initiatives that might be interested in taking forward aspects of our work, or have suggestions on how our work might be carried forward, in whole or part, by other organisations around the world.

GI is an award winning charity, and was founded in 2001 in order to challenge the most pervasive and damaging, socially accepted form of violence against children. We have seen significant progress in the 19 years of our existence – for example, the 2006 global study on Violence Against Children, and the publication of the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment on corporal punishment paved the way to the inclusion of the elimination of physical punishment as a progress indicator for the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015.

Whilst we have been in operation, we have seen the number of states that fully prohibit corporal punishment of children rise from 11 to 59. We have grown a global movement of supporters that now numbers several thousand, and have produced a range of resources and guidance on the issue, including a multi-language website to support this united, global action to combat violence against children in all its forms. Undoubtedly there is increasing recognition of every child’s right to protection, but there is also much work to be done.

We are thankful to our supporters and all those who have worked with us over the past decades, and trust that you will all continue this important work in your own communities and countries, ensuring that the global movement to end all corporal punishment of children prevails until all children can grow free from all forms of violence.

 

Anne Crowley

Chair, Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children

 

Note: we are working hard with our partners to find solutions for how our important work and resources can live on, and we hope to share an update on this by the end of June.