These resources have been identified by the Global Initiative as key documents for advocating law reform to prohibit corporal punishment. These resources are not published by the Global Initiative and so the links below are to external websites and will open in a new window.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (full text)

Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8 on “The right of the child to protection from corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment (arts. 19; 28, para. 2; and 37, inter alia)” (2006)

African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Statement on Violence against Children (2011)

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Report on corporal punishment and human rights of children and adolescents (2009)

The Kyoto Declaration, A Multi-Religious Commitment to Confront Violence against Children (2006)

Statement by international health organisations in support of prohibition and elimination of all corporal punishment of children (2013, background to statement updated 2016)

Gershoff, E. T. (2008), Report on Physical Punishment in the United States: What Research Tells Us About Its Effects on Children, Columbus, OH: Center for Effective Discipline

Gershoff, E. T. (2002), “Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: A meta-analytic and theoretical review”, Psychological Bulletin, 128(4), 539-579