This comprehensive guide aims to support child rights advocates in challenging the legality and practice of corporal punishment of children in all settings – in the home, in schools, and in justice and care settings. The manual contains six main sections:

• “Understanding the problem of corporal punishment” defines corporal punishment and outlines the reasons why it should be prohibited and eliminated, focusing on the human rights imperative.
• “Analysing the situation and campaigning for reform” explains how to carry out a rights-based analysis of the situation, including a review of the laws relating to corporal punishment, finding out about its prevalence, identifying obstacles to reform, and using this information to set priorities for action. It addresses how to include children in this work.
• “Ending the legality of corporal punishment” focuses on promoting law reform to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, including the home. It describes how to draft prohibiting legislation, how to develop a strategy to promote law reform, how to work with government and parliament, and how legal action can be taken to push for reform. It also covers how prohibition works in practice and the importance of understanding this in promoting law reform.
• “Ending the practice of corporal punishment” addresses how to change people’s attitudes towards, and use of, corporal punishment, providing detailed guidance on developing strategies to achieve this in the home and in schools.
• “Assessing the effectiveness of the campaign” explains why it is important to evaluate the campaign and how to do this.
• “Resources” lists available resources which will be useful to support campaigning for law reform and for behavioural and attitudinal change, many of which are freely available on the internet.

If you have questions or comments about this or any of our resources, or to request hard copies, contact us at info@endcorporalpunishment.org.

Campaigns manual 2010 (EN)
Ending corporal punishment and other cruel and degrading punishment of children through law reform and social change
Campaigns manual 2010 (FR)
Mettre fin aux châtiments corporel et autres châtiments cruels et dégradants à l’encontre des enfants grâce à la réforme légale et au changement social
Campaigns manual 2010 (ES)
Eliminando el castigo corporal y otros castigos crueles y degradantes hacia los niños y niñas mediante la reforma legal y el cambio social