violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

“Upon ratification of the Convention (on the Rights of the Child), countries are required to adopt laws,policies and programmes to ensure that each and every child grows up in an environment of love andunderstanding, enjoys freedom from fear and from want, is protected from discrimination,violence and exploitation and is given all opportunities to develop to the fullest potential.With the Convention, we are committed to ensure that the opportunities of life are not determinedby the circumstances of birth.”Marta Santos Pais, Editorial Board of the UN Secretary-General’s Studyon Violence against Children2are holders of human rights and acknowledgestheir distinct legal personality and evolvingcapacities, is the most widely accepted humanrights treaty, having been ratified or accededto by 192 States. Its 42 substantive articles setout civil, political, economic, social and culturalrights, formulated to address the specialneeds of the child, defined by the CRC as everyhuman being under the age of 18, unless majorityis attained earlier under national law. 2of the Child to Protection from Corporal Punishmentand Other Cruel or Degrading Formsof Punishment, adopted at its forty-second sessionin June 2006, highlights the obligationof all States to move quickly to prohibit andeliminate all corporal punishment and othercruel or degrading forms of punishment ofchildren, focusing on the legislative, awareness-raisingand educational measures thatStates must take. 3The CRC sets up a framework of legal principlesand detailed standards which shouldgovern all law, policy and practice affectingchildren. These include the promotion of preventionof violence, and responses to protectall children from all forms of violence.Various articles of the CRC assert the rightsof children to physical and personal integrity,and establish high standards for protection.Article 19 requires that States which are partiesto the CRC take “all appropriate legislative,administrative, social and educationalmeasures to protect the child from all formsof physical or mental violence, injury or abuse,neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatmentor exploitation, including sexual abuse, whilein the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s),or any other person who has the care of thechild.” The breadth of this obligation has beenemphasised by the Committee on the Rightsof the Child.The Committee has also underlined therequirement that all violence against childrenbe prohibited. This includes all forms of corporalpunishment, however light. The Committee’sGeneral Comment No. 8 on the RightThe General Comment makes clear that theCommittee does not reject the positive conceptof discipline, and recognises that parentingand caring for children, especially babies andyoung children, demands frequent physicalaction and intervention to protect them. TheCommittee indicates that this is quite distinctfrom the deliberate and punitive use of forceto cause some degree of pain, discomfort orhumiliation to children.“Addressing the widespread acceptanceor tolerance of corporal punishment ofchildren and eliminating it, in the family,schools and other settings, is not only anobligation of States parties under the Convention.It is also a key strategy for reducingand preventing all forms of violence insocieties.”Committee on the Rights of the Child,General Comment No. 8, para. 3 4Article 28(2) of the CRC requires that schooldiscipline be “administered in a manner consistentwith the child’s human dignity and33Violence against children and international human rights law and standards