Save the Children Sweden, the Global Initiative to end all Corporal Punishment of Children, and the Churches Network for Non-Violence has published a handbook on the role of faith-based organisations in preventing corporal punishment.

The Handbook observes that although many countries have child protection systems in place, they continue to authorise corporal punishment of children. The Handbook further notes that often religious justifications are used to legitimise corporal punishment. At the same time, in as much as religious beliefs are used to support corporal punishment, religion is equally promotive of values that strongly resonate with human rights such as respect for human dignity, equality, justice and non-violence.

Given that 5 of the 6 billion people in the world are religious, religious leaders are ideally placed to advance the ending of all forms of violence against children, including corporal punishment. This is indeed a role many religious leaders are already playing.

This Handbook is a useful resource for advocacy within and through religious communities and faith based institutions to prohibit and eliminate corporal punishment against children.

The Handbook adopts a rights-based approach and within that context discusses the challenges posed by faith-based legitimisation of corporal punishment and ways of responding to them. It looks at faith-based support for prohibiting corporal punishment and gives a brief account of some of the teachings about children and non-violence from the major world religions.

It further provides practical guidance in strategic advocacy by and in partnership with religious leaders, specifically how they can advance non-violence against children through their existing roles and functions. It provides guidance on ways of addressing and engaging with religious leaders and developing multi-religious support and partnerships.

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Click here to view the Handbook.