Dear Editor,
In November and December 2007, Spanish-speaking and Catholic Uruguay, Spain, Chile, and Venezuela joined the small but growing honours roll of nations that have passed legislation banning all forms of corporal punishment of children in all settings. Their children now have the same protection from assault as adults. This brings to 23 the number of states to have recognized the full human rights of their children. This is over a tithe of all the world’s countries, no longer a drop in the bucket.
Earlier in 2007, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Portugal passed laws to prohibit all corporal punishment of children. In two other states, Italy and Nepal, corporal punishment is prohibited in all settings by Supreme Court ruling, but is not yet reflected in legislation. At least 16 other countries have publicly committed to similar reforms, while corporal punishment in schools is illegal in more than 100 nations.
More details can be found online at http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org.
There is growing hope for the children of humanity as we strive to fulfil Gandhi’s words: “If we want to achieve world peace, we must begin with the children.”
Meanwhile, in Guyana, we, like a stuck gramophone record, continue to whine, “I was beaten in school and at home and I never turned out bad.” Never turned out bad? Is that so?
Yours faithfully,
M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett
