Media

Corporal Punishment Kills: Call to Ban Corporal Punishment

01 Mar 2006

 

A 10-year-old boy was dead recently after he was found inside a leather suitcase at his home. It was not the first time that the parents locked him in it as punishment. Unfortunately, it is not a single event. Within a couple of days, another 8-year-old girl jumped to dead after corporal punishment. We are deeply grieved at the tragedies!

Corporal Punishment Kills

The tragedies came out with a reason that our society has high tolerance of corporal punishment which is no doubt a kind of violence against children. Our culture endorses the beliefs that: "physical punishment teaches children to behave", "a punch on the child is a punch on the mother's heart", and "children are the possessions of the parents and so parents have the rights to decide what are best for their kids". Such beliefs reinforce that parents could use physical punishment against their children.

Corporal punishment is defined as the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not necessary injury, for the purpose of correcting or controlling the child’s behavior. There is no clear boundary between corporal punishment and child abuse. Many parents may think that corporal punishment is different from or no serious than child abuse. Unfortunately, this traumatic case proves that such belief is wrong. Corporal punishment is a form of child abuse and could be resulted into injury or death. Corporal punishment could be fatal.

Children Right as Human Right

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child requires states to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect children from "all forms of physical or mental violence" while they are in the care of parents and others, and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has underlined that corporal punishment is incompatible with the Convention. The Convention emphasizes that children are neither the property of their parents nor are they helpless objects of charity. They are human beings and are the subject of their own rights.

The Tip of the Iceberg

Social Welfare Department has commissioned Dr. Edward CHAN Ko-ling of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of The University of Hong Kong to conduct a representative, random sampling, household survey on domestic violence, which was the first of the same kind in Hong Kong. Among the 5049 adults and 2062 children aged between 12 -17 years interviewed, about 44% of the parents admitted having administered corporal punishment and physical violence on their children, 32% of the parents said they had done it in the previous year, and 22% said they had done corporal punishment in the previous week (Table 1 & Table 2). Results indicated that 21% of the families in Hong Kong lived with the problem of domestic violence, including both spouse and/or child abuses. Results also revealed that only 2% of the spouse violence cases and 1% of the child abuse cases were reported(*1).

There is a general understanding that the causes of corporal punishment and child abuse are the problems in parenting method and parent stress. However, it ignores the fact that hitting hurts. From the household survey, it is found that parental conflict and violence could be associated with the violence against children. If parents tend to believe that "domestic violence is not a crime"; "it is better to admonish parents to hit his own children than to admonish a man to divorce his wife", and "spare the rod, spoil the child", they tend to use violence against their children. To stop corporal punishment and child abuse, we propose to adopt legal intervention and support to parents program.

Six Recommendations

1. Law Amendment – Ban Corporal Punishment

We propose to prohibit corporal punishment by law enforcement. It could be done by the amendment of the law to prohibit corporal punishment administered by anyone to a child. We have a law prohibiting teacher to administer corporal punishment to a pupil (Cap279A, S58)(*2) , and prohibiting anyone to administer corporal punishment to a child in a centre (Cap243A, S15 & S45R)(*3). However, there is no explicit law prohibiting corporal punishment in the home. It conveys a message that parents have the right to physically punish their kids.

In 1979, Sweden became the first country to prohibit all forms of corporal punishment of children. Since then, at least 15 countries have banned corporal punishment in the community including at home(*4) . From the household survey findings conducted by HKU, about 53% & 57% of the respondents supported that intervention by police and mandatory program by law were effective helping the perpetrators.

2. Reform of Domestic Violence Ordinance (Cap 189)

As recommended by the HKU consultancy study, the DVO (Cap189) should be amended in the following ways to enhance child protection:
(a) Violence, defined in the DVO (Cap 189), includes physical assault, sexual violence, psychological abuse, neglect (for children and elderly), stalking and exposing a child to domestic violence.
(b) A child should have the right to apply for an order on his or her own with the Court's permission. If the child finds it difficult to work on his or her own, he or she can be represented by the SWD, with his or her consent, to apply for the restraining orders.

3. Court-mandated Batterers Intervention Programs for Abusive Parents

Imprisonment is not the ultimate purpose of banning corporal punishment. We propose to expand sentencing options for prosecuted abusive parents to include Court-mandated Batterers Intervention Programs for Abusive Parents.

4. Domestic Violence Serious Injury or Fatality Review

We urge the government to form an independent, multidisciplinary committee to review domestic violence serious injury and fatal cases such as the recent two children killed to identify psycho-social risk factors of death, causes, trends, characteristics, and inadequacies of the system, if any, for improvement in order to reduce such problems from happening in the future.

5. A Child Commission is Long Overdue

A high powered platform for children's matters is essential for working out child policy, setting indicators for prevention and evaluation.

6. Support to Parents

Prevention is better than cure. If we claim zero tolerance of violence as the Chief Executive did, we must nib violence in the bud by banning corporal punishment which is a form of violence and an infringement of the rights and safety of the child. Furthermore education on non-violent conflict resolution must start early. Effective integrated and activities approach adopted in early childhood education and in primary schools such as in Australia are good practices that should be encouraged. Support to parents with newborn baby should be provided. Parent education should be focusing on illegal parenting behavior and non-abusive parenting strategies. These supports could be provided through active intervention like home visitation.

Should you have any inquiries, please contact Dr. Edward CHAN Ko-ling of the Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong at 9644 5864 / 2859 2077 or Mrs Priscilla Lui of the Against Child Abuse at 9121 4651.

Footnote:

*1 - According to the Child Protection Registry, the established child abuse cases in 2004 were 622. Compare to the projection by the survey conducted by HKU consultant team, there were about 70,000 children suffered from severe violence by parent within a year. Thus, only 1% of the violent cases had reported.

*2 - Education Regulations (Cap279A, S58): No teacher shall administer corporal punishment to a pupil.

*3 - Child Care Services Regulations (Cap243A, S15): No person shall administer corporal punishment to a child in a centre. Child Care Services Regulations (Cap243A, S45R): No person shall administer corporal punishment to a child in a mutual help child care centre.

*4 - Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine