Public statement and urgent appeal for funding October 2024
End Corporal Punishment
Public statement and urgent appeal for funding
October 2024
Over the last 12 months significant efforts have been made to secure funding for End Corporal Punishment for 2025 and beyond, by ourselves and our partners, including members of the End Corporal Punishment Advisory Committee and Reference Group.[1] However, these efforts have been undermined by a range of global factors making it difficult to resource work to end violence against children. As a result, we have not been able to secure the required funding to sustain End Corporal Punishment beyond the end of this year.
We are releasing this statement and emergency call for funding in the hope of preventing the permanent closure of End Corporal Punishment on 31 December 2024.
Urgent call for funding
Despite the ongoing demand and impact of End Corporal Punishment’s work, we have not been able to secure funding for our two staff members beyond the end of 2024. We would welcome any serious proposals of funding and would be pleased to provide further information and discuss details as needed.
In the eventuality that funding cannot be found, we also welcome contact from organisations or initiatives that might be interested in taking forward aspects of our work, or suggestions on how our work might be carried forward, in whole or part, by other organisations around the world.
The work of End Corporal Punishment
End Corporal Punishment was founded in 2001 (then called the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children) and is the only global entity dedicated to ending this most common and socially accepted form of violence against children. We act as a catalyst for progress towards universal prohibition and elimination of violent punishment of children, supporting and analysing national progress, monitoring legality and implementation worldwide and partnering with organisations at all levels. We are hosted by the World Health Organization and supported by a multi-partner Advisory Committee and Reference Group.
End Corporal Punishment has grown a global network that numbers several thousand and includes all the main organisations and agencies working on behalf of children around the world. We regularly provide technical guidance to governments and others, and systematically engage with human rights mechanisms. Our multilingual knowledge hub website www.endcorporalpunishment.org provides a wide range of resources, information and guidance to those working to end corporal punishment of children at all levels and is accessed by 12,000 visitors each month.
Continuing demand and need for End Corporal Punishment’s work
Global momentum in recognising the need for universal prohibition and elimination of corporal punishment continues to grow, and so does demand for our technical expertise and support. The approaching First Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children has focused attention on ending violence against children across the world, and we are working on events and advocacy connected to the Conference, as well as being approached by governments and organisations who want to explore how corporal punishment of children can be tackled. Meanwhile, we continue to support ongoing moves across many countries to pass and implement legislation that seeks to end violent punishment of children; we are working on a new report on corporal punishment and public health for the World Health Organization; we continue to receive regular requests for technical support from UN agencies and civil society organisations; and research on the scale of the positive impact of working to prohibit and eliminate corporal punishment is becoming ever clearer - for example, see our latest blog about associations with much lower levels of adolescent suicide.
End Corporal Punishment’s impact over 23 years
Over the 23 years of our existence, we have seen significant progress – for example, the 2006 global study on Violence Against Children, and the publication of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment Number Eight 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. Globally, we have seen the number of states that fully prohibit corporal punishment of children rise from 11 to 67, while prohibition of corporal punishment in schools has now been achieved in well over two thirds of states, together positively impacting hundreds of millions of children. We have undoubtedly seen significant progress in recognition of children’s right to protection, but with only 14% of the world’s children protected by law from all corporal punishment, there remains much to be done.
In the coming weeks we will work hard to avoid the closure of End Corporal Punishment, but this will depend on quickly securing adequate resources for our continuation. We would be pleased to receive any suggestions or introductions to serious funding possibilities without delay. We also welcome proposals for a possible future home for some or all of End Corporal Punishment work or website.
If you would like any additional information do contact us at our email addresses shared below. However, your patience is appreciated as we are extremely busy preparing for the Ministerial Conference, as well as trying to avoid closure.
Thank you for your partnership and commitment to ending violence against children.
Sincerely,
Bess Herbert and Sonia Vohito
[1] ChildFund Alliance, Council of Baltic Sea States, Human Rights Watch, Office of UN SRSGVAC, Professor Joan Durrant, Save the Children, UNICEF, UNODC, WHO