The Global Initiative is delighted to present a new global report ahead of a high-level intergovernmental conference hosted by the Austrian Government in Vienna this week (June 2016), and marking the 10th anniversary of the UN Study on Violence against Children. This special report outlines progress to date towards universal prohibition and elimination of all corporal punishment and looks at the additional context to speed progress presented by the new Sustainable Development Agenda 2030.

Designed to support action, the report describes how states can work collaboratively towards universal prohibition of violent punishment; it sets out existing regional commitments and action and how to use opportunities at national level to achieve prohibition. Where a total ban has been achieved, the report outlines what is required for states to move from prohibition in law to elimination of all violent punishment of children.

While there is some commendable progress as this report confirms, corporal punishment of children remains legal within the family in almost three quarters of states and also in schools, care institutions and penal systems in many states.

Both the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child consistently address this issue as a human rights violation in their examination of states’ reports. We must hope, even expect, that the added monitoring of the SDGs process will speed universal prohibition ahead of 2030, together with substantial progress towards the elimination of all violent punishment.”

Benyam Dawit Mezmur, Chair, Committee on the Rights of the Child; Chair, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, in Childhoods free from corporal punishment – prohibiting and eliminating all violent punishment of children. A special progress report prepared for the high-level intergovernmental conference hosted by the Austrian Government in Vienna, June 2016, and marking the 10th anniversary of the UN Study on Violence against Children

The full report is available here.

A limited number of hard copies is available for advocacy purposes; email info@endcorporalpunishment.org.