Non Violent Childhoods
Moving on from corporal punishment in the Baltic Sea Region
Kick-off and Planning Meeting – Minutes
Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat
Stockholm, 7 February 2017
Table of Contents
Introduction to the region, the meeting and the project
Presentations from project partners and experts
Country briefings
Group work planning different activities of the project
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Non Violent Childhoods Kick-off Meeting – Minutes
On 7 February 2017, the Children at Risk Unit at the Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat hosted the kick-off meeting for the Non Violent Childhoods Initiative. The participants included project partners, representative from the member States of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), representatives of Ombudsoffices as well as leading experts from the Baltic Sea Region.
The Non Violent Childhoods Initiative is implemented under the coordination of the Children at Risk Unit at the Council of the Baltic Sea States in collaboration with the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children. The project partners are the Ministry of Social Affairs in Estonia, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Finland, the Ministry of Welfare in Latvia and the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights in Poland. In addition, the Coordination on the Rights of the Child in the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs in Sweden participates as associated partner. The project is implemented with the expertise of a working and reference group with the participation of the Council of Europe and the Swedish Institute alongside national experts, the Ombudsoffices for Children, Chancellors of Justice and other human rights structures. Representatives and experts from all the countries in the Baltic Sea Region will be involved in the project.
Introduction to the region, the meeting and the project
The Meeting was opened by Bragi Guðbrandsson, Director of the Government Agency for Child Protection of Iceland and Chair of the CBSS Expert Group on Children at Risk during the Icelandic Chairmanship of the CBSS.
The CBSS looks back on a history of more than 25 years of cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. Issues concerning children at risk have been one of the core themes of the regional cooperation. Initially, the focus of the regional cooperation on children at risk was strongly focused on addressing sexual violence against children, safeguarding children on the move and reducing risks of exploitation and trafficking. More recently, the regional collaboration has expanded and is increasingly addressing child welfare issues more broadly. With the Non Violent Childhoods Initiative, the region is now for the first time focusing its collaboration specifically on ending corporal punishment of children.
Tríona Lenihan represents the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children in the partnership for the Non Violent Childhood Initiative. The Global Initiative has thus far focussed strongly on legal reform processes to prohibit corporal punishment of children. At present, there are 51 states in the world that have a legal prohibition in place. With the enactment of the legal ban in Lithuania, which is anticipated to take place during February 2017, the number will rise to 52. It becomes therefore increasingly important to look at implementation measures and strategies that enable the effective and appropriate implementation of the legal ban in practice in order to enable children to grow up free from violence.
Turid Heiberg, Head of the Children’s Unit at the Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat, introduced the project with its objectives, vision and aspirations. The Baltic Sea Region is fast developing into a no corporal punishment region as 9 out of 11 Member States have already enacted the legal prohibition and Lithuania will soon be the 10th country to prohibit corporal punishment by law in the region. The Non Violent Childhoods Initiative will be standard setting and the outcomes shall be used in the region and globally. In the context of the project, the CBSS and partners will develop guidance material for the implementation of the legal ban in practice. The guidance material will be based on the evidence that is available from the region and the vast body of knowledge and expertise in this area. The active participation of all 11 countries of the region is therefore essential to inform the processes and outcomes of the project. The guidance material will focus on what works in implementing the legal ban in practice as well as the challenges that remain. The experience in the region is significant as some countries such as Sweden, Finland and Norway have decades of experience to learn from. In addition, the experience of Save the Children Sweden, which has been rolling out a multi-year global initiative to promote childhoods free from violence, will be most valuable to set the experience in the Baltic Sea Region in context with developments in countries all over the world.
Expectations of the project
The participants discussed their expectations of the project and of their own participation and involvement in the project activities. Many noted that it would be interesting to share experience across professional groups and countries and to learn from each other about good practice examples, approaches that work in implementing the legal ban and how challenges can be addressed. The Baltic Sea Region is considered particularly dynamic in this area as some countries have decades of experience while others have enacted the legal prohibition only recently and are embarking on the implementation process. There is an interest in gaining a better understanding of how preventive and protective approaches can be combined in reducing the use of corporal punishment in practice. The project was seen also as a source of inspiration for specific measures to be undertaken in the countries in order to promote the implementation in practice. One participant noted that it could be interesting to develop a regional monitoring tool and possibly a European convention to prohibit corporal punishment and promote positive parenting. The learning identified from this region can also guide the external action and cooperation with countries in other regions.
Participants expected also to discuss practical questions related to the project, including defining the partnership between different actors involved and to plan jointly the activities for the implementation of the project.
Participants recommended including measures to prevent mental violence against children into the scope of the project activities, in addition to physical violence.
Presentations from project partners and experts
Tríona Lenihan, Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides the main framework and context for the work of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children. Measures to end corporal punishment of children and measures for the implementation of the Convention are closely related and reinforce each other. The main purpose of the Global Initiative is to act as a catalyst to encourage more action and progress to end corporal punishment in all countries around the world.
The Global Initiative encourages national actors and governments to take ownership of the overall objective to end corporal punishment. It provides technical assistance on campaigning for law reform and drafting prohibiting legislation. The Global Initiative produces publications that partners can use for campaigns and other purposes. In addition, the Initiative convenes national workshops, often in cooperation with Save the Children, and provides individual support to the countries.
The Global Initiative has mapped the legal prohibitions of corporal punishment in different settings in countries all over the world. This mapping includes also any recommendations made by UN Treaty Bodies specifically on that issue. The Initiative also conducts research on the negative effects of corporal punishment and the positive impact of positive discipline.
The body of information, analysis and evidence that is being generated through these activities provides the basis for the Initiative’s work and advocacy. It informs all publications and communications and is used systematically to brief UN Agencies and Treaty Bodies, including the Universal Periodic Report. The Global Initiative analyses the outcomes of Treaty Body sessions with the aim to identify the relevant issues that need to be addressed in each country as well as recommendations for the continued work in this area. The Initiative follows up with governments on these recommendations and offers support in translating them into policy and practice.
Globally, the progress has accelerated significantly during the past years, as compared to the 1980s or 1990s. Research shows that it is difficult to find reliable information about the implementation process of legal bans. It is difficult to capture the impact of what has been done. It is much easier to find information on campaigns or other activities. A lot has been done by NGOs, sometimes at the national level, sometimes locally. There is however very little research to provide a national baseline and to then assess or evaluate the impact of the activities. The countries in the Baltic Sea Region have probably a bit more to offer with regard to research on impact and evaluations. It would be interesting to share and use that information globally.
Staffan Janson, Universities of Karlstad and Uppsala, Sweden
The presentation provides a brief overview of what has happened in Sweden since the ban of corporal punishment was enacted into law in 1979. Sweden was the first country in the world that instituted the ban. This was done in the parental code, not in the penal code. So the law could be understood also as a recommendation for positive parenting. The legal provision is comprehensive and has not been changed afterwards. In 1979, this law reform did not happen ad hoc. There had been several reforms of the parental code before and the reform of 1979 was the final one that banned corporal punishment explicitly.
The overall aim and vision of the legal ban was the understanding that children are not the property of their parents but independent human beings and individuals with a right to full respect to their physical and mental integrity. In the same year when the ban was enacted, an important book on parenting came out. It was discussing parents’ rights and what parents had to do to bring up their children in a good way. This book started to change the attitudes towards parenting.
Changing attitudes was important. The aim of the law was not to criminalise the parents who used corporal punishment against their children. This is an issue that has been misunderstood, particularly in the USA. In fact, very few parents were sued or prosecuted. This was the case only in particularly severe cases where parents tried to kill their children. There were large-scale campaigns raising awareness and disseminating information about the law. For instance, an important campaign was printed on milk boxes. The tetra pack was quite new at the time and most families used to buy them.
How has the situation in Sweden evolved? In the 1960s, practically all parents were punishing their children and hitting was a common behaviour at the time. More than 50% of the parents had a positive attitude towards corporal punishment. After that, we noted that the attitudes were changing gradually. It was notable that first the attitudes changed and the behaviours followed later. There have been periodic studies to monitor the change in attitudes. Another study is scheduled for the autumn of this year. The studies followed a common methodology, only the wording had to be adapted slightly at one point in order to adjust it to modern terminology and language. At the moment, we are conducting studies with school children in order to understand their experiences of corporal punishment and their attitudes.
Between the 1960s and today, we have witnessed a massive change in Sweden. The vast majority of parents today are strongly opposed to the use of corporal punishment.
Research has also evidenced the benefits of positive parenting for the child, the family and the society. The benefits for children are obvious. They are punished less and feel less humiliated. We have also noted that practically no children are killed by their parents any more. The statistics on child deaths as a result of violence in the home have been going down all the time since World War II. Positive parenting is also good for families and enables a more democratic upbringing of children. Parents do not have to regret what they have done to their children. Children respect their parents more and do what parents say – not because they are afraid of them but because they love them. We have evidenced this change in Sweden.
Positive parenting and non-violent childhoods are good for equity in society. They are also an essential part of good democracy.
Children in immigrant and asylum seeking families are a group that requires specific attention. Research has shown that migrant and asylum seeking children and families tend to adopt the attitudes and behaviours of the host society when they are well integrated.
How has this change been achieved? In Sweden, the mass media has played an important role, as well as well-known social workers and doctors. Many different professional groups and individuals were supportive of the ban and demonstrated this publicly. The Swedish Welfare State was the basis for this change to happen. Without that basis, it becomes more difficult. Another important factor is the equality between men and women and their shared responsibilities with regard to a good balance of work and family life and shared responsibilities in child rearing and childcare. When children are in day care, it is practically impossible to hide that a child has been hit and there is a higher level of monitoring. Today, most children in Sweden are in day care from an early age. There are, however, some segments of society that are not participating in these services, for instance some religious sects or closed communities. Sweden is, however, a largely homogeneous society and this aspect has facilitated the widespread implementation of the legal ban.
In the discussion, the participants noted that there was a common trend in many countries that the attitudes change first and the behaviour change requires more time. This is different for cases of sexual violence against children. In these cases, the more the society becomes aware of sexual violence, the more cases are reported and the higher are the national statistics, because cases are more easily seen and reported. The trend in cases of corporal punishment is the reverse.
The difference between attitudes and behaviour indicates also that parents generally tend to be against the use of corporal punishment but do not necessarily know how to handle the conflict situations. It is therefore important to give them tools and guidance.
Today, the figures show that a small minority of persons are still in favour of using corporal punishment. Their number is however higher than the actual prevalence. The taboo against corporal punishment is so strong, that the explanation for this could be that some respondents to the surveys even through anonymous, are not completely honest.
The mass media campaign for the dissemination of the law in Sweden was strongly supported by the politicians and there was substantive public budget allocation for this purpose.
Save the Children Sweden
Save the Children Sweden has worked for many years against physical and humiliating punishment of children. The work is based on a four-pillar approach that encompasses a) advocacy and legal reform, working actively to ban physical and humiliating punishment in all settings; b) public awareness raising in order to create awareness and knowledge in the society and to promote the public recognition that it is unacceptable to hit children; c) behaviour change through training on positive discipline and measures to promote positive parenting; and d) engaging directly with children and children’s groups and ensure that they know their rights and that they also know where to seek information and advice and how to report any infringements against their rights.
Save the Children Sweden has conducted a review of the last 10 years of practice, which covers the decade since the UN Study on Violence Against Children came out. This review has been conducted as a desk review and through interviews with key informants and leading experts all around the world. The review includes case studies from several countries and the overall report is in the process of finalisation for publication this year.
The findings from this study include in particular the following:
There is an urgent need to focus on implementation measures for the legal ban, as for instance also this project does.