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Aotearoa New Zealand can be a place where children are secure, confident, understand limits and boundaries and behave well – without physical punishment.
In 2007, by an overwhelming majority of 113 to 8 votes, Parliament granted children protection from assault by their parents. The law is working well as shown by: Increased awareness of positive discipline and other nonviolent parenting techniques; parents who overstep the mark and use heavy handed discipline, like Jimmy Mason not getting away with a defence of “reasonable force” and being given compassionate and appropriate sentences like anger management courses; and no criminal convictions of parents who have only lightly smacked their children.
The results of the recent poorly worded referendum will lead to pressure being put on politicians to change the 2007 law and re-legalise the use of physical discipline. Turning the clock back is a retrograde step.
Thank you to our supporters for your continued efforts to ensure a better future for our children.
Latest News
Corporal punishment of children in schools has been illegal in New Zealand for 20 years. Most parents would be outraged if they thought their children could be strapped or caned at the discretion of another adult. They would see this form of punishment as unjust, ineffective, unsafe and a breach of children’s rights.
In a short news item from Texas. USA, something called a “paddle” is displayed. This is the implement used in some schools to punish children. It looks like a cricket bat and it is said to be capable of causing tissue injury in the recipient. Physical punishment of children in schools is still legal in some, but not all, states in USA.
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- SKIP: What it is and why it works – 19 May 2010
The Ministry of Social Development have recently published this attractive and readable report called SKIP: What it is and why it works based on research into the SKIP (Strategies with Kids: Information for Parents) initiative.
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- Europe presses UK to introduce total ban on smacking – 26 April 2010
The Guardian reports:
[Read More ...]The UK will come under increasing pressure to ban all smacking and corporal punishment of children as the European human rights body steps up pressure for a change in the law.
The Council of Europe – which monitors compliance with the European convention on human rights – will criticise the UK because it has not banned smacking more than 10 years after a ruling in 1998 that the practice could violate children’s rights against inhuman and degrading treatment.
“The campaign to abolish corporal punishment across the Council of Europe is gathering momentum; 20 countries have formally abolished laws allowing it in the past three years,” said Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, deputy secretary general of the Council of Europe.
The New Zealand Police released their 6th review of the implementation Crimes (substituted section 59) Amendment Act 2007 on Friday 5th March 2010. It covered the 6th month period 24 June 2009 to December 22nd 2009. You can read the Police media release, or download the full report.
The report indicates that the number of complaints about smacking and minor acts of physical discipline have remained fairly constant since the law changed. In the recent six month period there were two prosecutions – one for smacking and one for a minor act of physical discipline. Both were resolved by way of Diversion. In the cases were there was no prosecution made many parents were given warnings and a significant number were referred to organisations that could provide or direct families to support and guidance.
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- The child discipline law six months after the referendum – 24 February 2010
Six months have passed since the August 2009 postal referendum on “a smack”. The 2007 amendment to the Crimes Act 1961 that essentially bans the use of force for correction remains intact despite the referendum and extensive lobbying of politicians and the public by “pro-smacking” activists.
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- New website for children – 13 February 2010
The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children has launched a new website for children.
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- Report on Sweden’s corporal punishment ban after 30 years – 12 February 2010
In September 2009 the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and Sweden’s Save the Children published Never Violence – Thirty Years on from Sweden’s Abolition of Corporal Punishment, 2009. The report briefly outlines the background of the ban, reports on trends since the 1979 law change and corrects claims made by opponents.
The full report may be read on the Swedish Government’s English language website.
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- The APS Parent guide to helping children manage conflict – 22 January 2010
Understanding some of the stresses that parents undergo in parenting children is an important issue that has received little attention in the recent media debate around a US study on the effectiveness of discipline and smacking children.
The APS Parent guide to helping children manage conflict, aggression and bullying contains useful information about how to manage a child‟s behaviour in an effective way, without being aggressive or unduly punishing the child.
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A recent report published by the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children provides information about world wide progress towards universal prohibition of all corporal (physical) punishment of children.
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- “Research” shows that smacking is good for kids? – 8 January 2010
Recently there have been reports in the media in New Zealand and internationally drawing attention to an unpublished study by Marjorie Gunnoe at Calvin College in Michigan USA that purports to have found that children who are smacked occasionally do better at school than children who are never smacked. These findings are, of course, being made much of by proponents of physical discipline – including those who would like to see New Zealand’s 2007 child discipline law overturned.
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You can also see older news items in our News section.
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