November 20, 2007	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 09, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: United Nations Fund for Children (Unicef) and leading international non-government organization Save the Children on Monday called upon the government to end corporal punishment and the legal provisions in the country’s law that permit it.

“We urge all adults to stop corporal punishment and start disciplining children with love and treat them with respect and patience to ensure a tolerant and child-friendly society,” the two organizations said in a joint statement issued on the eve of Universal Children’s Day.

Universal Children’s day is being observed on November 20 to mark the anniversary of adoption of Declaration of the Rights of Children (1959) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).

Pakistan ratified Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, whose Article 19 condemns all forms of physical and mental violence against the child including injury and abuse.

Contrastingly, Section 89 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC 1860) allows parents, teachers and other guardians to use corporal punishment as a means of disciplining children under the age of 12. Besides, corporal punishment is culturally acceptable way of disciplining children.

The provincial governments have, nevertheless, issued directives banning corporal punishment in the context of the schools.

Unicef Communications Officer Ms Antonia Paradela said it was worrisome that legal provisions legalising corporal punishment still existed. Furthermore, the provincial directives are only school-specific, she added.

Corporal punishment, which is proven to leave behind psychological and emotional scars on children, is widespread in the country, especially in disaster affected communities. A study involving over 3,500 children jointly conducted by the government, Unicef and Save the Children had found out that all interviewed children had received corporal punishment, while 7 per cent of them received serious injuries because of it.

The study had quoted children as having felt that corporal punishment was a major contributory factor in drop-out from the schools and resulted in diminishing of their concentration in studies. The children had suggested that they could have responded much better to other forms of punishments like withdrawal of privileges.