Posts Tagged children
February 13, 2010
The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children has launched a new website for children.
This comprehensive site contains information about children campaigning to end corporal punishment in many countries.
It also contains useful resources to help children and adults campaign together against corporal punishment.
The debate in New Zealand about the use of physical punishment of children and law change involved limited but valuable and important opportunities for children to participate.
The new website reports on the New Zealand debate.
What sort of sense do children make of being smacked and hit? Are children aware that they have rights to safety and physical integrity? What do children think of laws that “excuse” assault of children (excused by some people as an adult’s right to chose how to discipline their child).
Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child advises that State Parties shall assure to the child which is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting that child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.
Physical punishment is absolutely a matter that affects children.
November 23, 2009
A Theology of Children is a new 24-page booklet aimed at supporting and strengthening parents, grandparents, and caregivers with strategies for non-physical discipline of children within a theological context. You can download A Theology of Children for free.
A Theology of Children was produced with the support of the Ministry of Social Development initiative SKIP (Strategies with Kids/ Information for Parents), and written by Reverend Nove Vailaau, who is very passionate about clarifying the issue of physical discipline in Christian theology. It also has an forward by Bishop Richard Randerson and a summary by Dr Elizabeth Clements.
The booklet has a broad perspective, but also focuses on the Pacific peoples of New Zealand. It provides an opportunity for discussion about parenting practices in Pacific communities and within New Zealand in general.
A Theology of Children aims to help guide parents and caregivers through the six principles of effective discipline: love and warmth, talking and listening, guidance and understanding, limits and boundaries, consistency and consequences, and a structured and secure world.
Download A Theology of Children.
Tags: children ,christian ,christianity ,download ,elizabeth clements ,free ,msd ,nove vailaau ,pacific ,richard randerson ,skip ,theology
July 31, 2009
A survey of 5263 children has found the majority believe parents who are taken to court for hitting a child should not be let off if they say they were disciplining a child. 52 percent of children said they don’t think adults should be let off. 39 percent said adults should be let off and 9 percent were not sure.
“The views of those who participated in the survey on the child helpline 0800Whatsup, show a range of opinion among children and young people. The majority of comments were in favour of the current law and some callers stated explicitly that parents who hit children should themselves be disciplined for doing so,” said Murray Edridge, Chief Executive of Barnardos New Zealand.
“Many of those who believe that parents should have the right to hit children expressed several conditions applying to this right: hitting should not be excessive, alternatives to hitting should be used, and the use of hitting should be justified by the extent of the child’s misbehaviour. They also showed an awareness that discipline might not be the real motive for hitting.”
Mr Edridge said, “With voting papers going out in the next couple of days it is important for New Zealanders to take into account the views of children, given the affect of corporal punishment on them. It’s clear that a ‘yes’ vote is consistent with the aspirations of children to have legal protection from assault and to be able to live free from violence.”
“Similarly, with research showing there are positive trends away from the use of corporal punishment, a ‘yes’ vote is an expression of support for parents’ choice to not hit their children. Positive, non-violent, parenting is more effective than corporal punishment as well as supporting better long-term outcomes for children and for society. This is something we should all say ‘yes’ to!” he concluded.
May 7, 2009
The Youth Week website is running a poll on the question:
Should children and young people have the same legal protections from assault as all other citizens have?
This is a much more clearly worded question than the one we’ll be voting on in August, put forth by a group with much more sincere motives the the folks who brought you the current referendum.
We suggest that you consider a Yes Vote on this poll too – go and vote in it!
April 28, 2009
The Campaign for Action on Family Violence has just published an online book, Real People Real Stories, telling eight true stories in the first person by people who have experienced family violence.
As described by the site,
These stories are intended to help others who have suffered from family violence and to help New Zealanders understand the impact of family violence on individuals, their families and their communities.
We know that children are damaged by violence in the home – whether they see it, hear it or just know about it. It has been proven that the brain development of preschoolers is profoundly inhibited by exposure to violence in the home.
In New Zealand each year 14 women, 10 children and six men die as a result of family violence. Many thousands more are scarred physically and emotionally.
Family violence thrives in secrecy – so the more we talk about it and understand it, the more likely we are to prevent it.
And these stories give hope that lives can be healed and that the cycle of violence can be broken.
They are heartbreaking stories describing in sometimes graphic detail how it feels to be trapped in families where violence is the norm, and the lasting effects on the young people involved.
If you need any help in understanding why it should continue to be illegal to hit your kids, read this book.
