SANCHPC - Promoting Positive Discipline

Child Rights Alliance for Tomorrow (CRAFT), South Africa

Human Rights Commission, Zambia

NGO Coalition on the Rights of a Child (NGOC), Lesotho

Ombudsperson for Children’s Office, Mauritius

Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (RAPCAN), South Africa

Rede Came, Mozambique

Save the Children Swaziland, Swaziland

South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), South Africa

Save the Children- Sweden, Southern African Regional Office

South African Council of Churches (SACC), South Africa

Zambia Civic Education Association, Zambia

Zambian Interfaith Working Group on HIV and AIDS (ZINGO)

Telephone: +27 (0) 21 712 2330
Fax: +27 (0) 21 712 2365
E-mail: info@rapcan.org.za

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The Regional Network on Corporal Punishment is a network of Southern African organisations working independently in various ways to prevent and address child abuse and neglect, and ensure the protection of the rights of children in their own countries.

Starting with Sweden in 1979, over 20 countries have prohibited all forms of corporal punishment of children, with the latest being Costa Rica, which prohibited corporal punishment in 2008. To date, no African country has done so. According to the All Africa Report, corporal punishment is allowed in alternative care settings in 51 of the African Union Member States, and is permitted as a judicial sentence in 35 Member States, and is lawful in school settings in 21 Member States. Given the violation of human rights that is implicit in corporal punishment, the high levels of violence in some of our societies, and the greater vulnerability of children, this is a situation which causes the members of the Network grave concerns.

The purpose of the Network is to co-ordinate advocacy towards banning all forms of corporal and humiliating punishment and to promote positive discipline in Southern Africa. This means bringing together interested and committed organisations within the Southern African region to work towards a prohibition of corporal punishment through capacity building, information dissemination, and joint regional advocacy initiatives.

The Network was formed in 2006, and meets face-to-face annually to report back on activities in our respective countries and joint activity in the year ahead. Click here to read the Report from the 2008 meeting .

The Network is committed to supporting the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and to finding African strategies for addressing violence against children. In addition, the Network has tried to draw attention to the Global Study on Violence Against Children, and in particular to its call for global prohibition of corporal punishment by 2009.

Activities in 2008 have been focussed on two presentations: one to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in Addis Ababa in November, and another to the All African Council of Churches at its meeting in Maputo in December.