In 2015, with the adoption of the SDGs, the world made a commitment to end violence against children (SDG target 16.2) by 2030. With less than six years to go, we need to accelerate efforts to eliminate corporal punishment, one of the most widespread forms of such violence.
Corporal punishment – defined by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as “any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light”– has traditionally been seen as an entirely normal and even necessary part of raising children. However, research has confirmed that corporal punishment does in fact inflict considerable harm on both children and societies as a whole.
In countries across the world, enormous numbers of children still experience corporal punishment in their homes, schools, care and work settings and the penal system. Estimates vary, but at least a billion children – that is 1 in 2 children - worldwide experience violent punishment every year. In some countries, nearly all children report regularly suffering violent punishment at home and at school.
Over fifty years of research has found that corporal punishment is associated with a wide range of harmful consequences to children and no benefits. It causes direct physical harm, killing thousands of children each year and causing injury for many more. It is also strongly linked with poor mental health in childhood and later life, including increases in the chances of self-harm, suicide attempts and addiction in adulthood. Corporal punishment is also associated with impaired cognitive development, lower educational attainment, and higher school dropout. Finally, far from teaching children how to behave well, violent punishment increases aggression, anti-social behaviour and perpetration and victimization of violence.
The detrimental impacts of violent punishment on individuals add up to considerable costs for society as a whole. The increased burden on health, mental health, child protection and criminal justice services, wasted investment in education, and loss of human capital are vast. One estimate suggests that all violence against children costs between 2-5% of global GDP annually, while the World Bank calculated that inaction on school violence including corporal punishment costs the world around US$ 11 trillion in lost lifetime earnings. Taken together, the prevalence, impacts and costs of corporal punishment indicate that a preventative, public health approach is an urgent priority.
The WHO INSPIRE technical package presents effective interventions to prevent violent punishment of children, including the implementation and enforcement of laws to prohibit physical punishment; programmes to address child-rearing norms and values; support to develop nurturing, non-violent parenting; and interventions to build a positive violence-free school environment, among others.
Sixty-six UN Member States from across all regions and contexts have now prohibited all corporal punishment of children by law.
Countries that have taken comprehensive steps to prohibit and eliminate corporal punishment have demonstrated that it is preventable. When well implemented, prohibition is associated with significant reductions in the acceptance and use of corporal punishment and other forms of violence against children. For example, in Germany in 1992, 30% of young people had been beaten. By 2002, two years after prohibition had been enacted, this had fallen to 3%. In Romania children’s reports of severe violent punishment halved in the decade following prohibition.
On this International Day to #EndCorporalPunishment, and as we approach the first Global Ministerial Conference to End Violence Against Children in Bogota, Colombia this November, let’s step up our commitment and action to end corporal punishment and keep our 2030 promise to children.