Pakistan: Corporal punishment leads to more school dropouts
In 2014, professors at the Teknologi University in Malaysia explored the relations of corporal punishment with
school dropout and showed alarming percentages in countries such as Pakistan. In the past years, the Government
has taken efforts to ban corporal punishment in schools. For instance, the enactment of the Prohibition of
Corporal Punishment Act in 2017, applicable in the Islamabad Capital Territory, and the Sindh Prohibition of
Corporal Punishment Act 2016. Both have extended the prohibition of corporal punishment as well as humiliating
and degrading treatment to all children under 18 years of age in educational settings.
United States of America: Reducing expenditure on treating victims of corporal punishment
In 2017, the financial costs associated with child abuse such as health care, hospitalisation, law enforcement and
the judicial system were estimated at 748 billion USD. With the outlawing of corporal punishment in all settings,
the Government estimated that the number of public services needed to assist and support victims of corporal
punishment would reduce. Mitigating the negative consequences of corporal punishment in children’s lives
implies an investment for governments and societies. The funding needed to address the broad and mid/long-term
harmful consequences of this traumatic practice can instead be invested elsewhere.
DEVELOPING A COMPREHENSIVE POLICY TO PROHIBIT
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
The key inter-related elements for developing comprehensive policies and practices ending corporal punishment are:
A holistic preliminary
assessment of the
country situation
Engagement and
participation of
key stakeholders
Awareness
-raising
campaigns
Capacity building
and knowledge
transfer
Monitoring and reporting
for more effective and
ongoing implementation
Accountability
1 A holistic preliminary assessment of the country situation
Thorough research and analysis is needed prior to developing a comprehensive policy to prohibit effectively
corporal punishment. This includes the gathering of information about the use of corporal punishment in the
country, how it is perceived by different stakeholders and potential obstacles to replacing the practice with
alternative dignity-based interventions.
Viet Nam: Creating favourable conditions to discuss the prohibition
In Viet Nam, corporal punishment has been prohibited in school settings since 2005. Moreover, the Government
has taken steps towards achieving a prohibition in all settings. In the early 2000s, the Law Research Institute,
an affiliate of the Ministry of Justice in Viet Nam, together with Save the Children, conducted a study of existing
domestic legislation, which helped to develop a national strategy to eradicate violence against children, including
prohibiting corporal punishment in all settings. As part of this strategy, starting in 2004, the Government
organised a series of activities to create favourable conditions to discuss eliminating all forms of corporal
punishment and make proposals to implement the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child. As part of these activities, the Government organised in 2007 the National Conference on Review and
Evaluation of five-years’ implementation of the UN document “A World Fit for Children”.
TOOL: Positive Discipline and Alternatives to Corporal Punishment of Children
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