Daily Times

Sir: Corporal punishment of children is a violation of fundamental human rights as it violates the right to respect for human dignity and physical integrity. The most common justification for its use given by parents, teachers and guardians is that it ‘disciplines’ children.

In fact, it is a reflection of adults’ inability to control their own anger, and a lack of understanding of child psychology and behaviour. Children’s physical vulnerabilities make them easy targets, since they can’t resist and defend themselves against such violence.

The UN has stated that all corporal punishment, as well as non-physical punishment which ‘belittles, humiliates, denigrates, scapegoats, threatens, scares or ridicules’ children is ‘cruel and degrading’ and therefore not compatible with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Sweden was the first country to ban corporal punishment in 1979. And since the almost universal ratification of the CRC in the 1990s, a number of countries have banned it. Pakistan should also ban corporal punishment.

According to the Human Rights Watch, as of 2014, 90 percent of children still live in countries where corporal punishment and other forms of physical violence against children are legal. It is imperative to introduce child rights education and awareness at the household, community and institutional levels. We must ensure that our children, in their formative years of development, are protected from normalising violence to promote a more peaceful society.

YOUSAF WAHAG

Via E-mail

Published in Daily Times, January 5^th 2018.