Posted: 25 September, 2025 | Author: AfricLaw | Filed under: Nqobani Nyathi | Tags: 1.2 billion children, Africa, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Children with disabilities, corporal punishment of children, dropout rates, General Comment 9, global public health concern, Guidelines on Ending Violence Against Children in Africa, no benefits, physical force, public health crisis, religion, religious traditions, tradition, violence, World Health Organisation (WHO) |
Author: Nqobani Nyathi
Doctoral Candidate, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
On 20 August 2025, the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched a report declaring corporal punishment of children a global public health concern. By definition, corporal punishment is any punishment where physical force is used with the intention of causing some degree of discomfort or pain, however light.
The statistics are staggering. An estimated 1.2 billion children around the world are subjected to corporal punishment at home every year. Children exposed to such violence are more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and emotional instability. These effects often persist into adulthood, increasing the risk of alcohol and drug use, and violent behaviour. In schools, corporal punishment contributes to dropout rates and poor educational outcomes.
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Posted: 5 April, 2022 | Author: AfricLaw | Filed under: Kebkab Sirgew Gelaw | Tags: Civil Rights Act of 1964, higher education institutions, male domination, sex discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual harassment laws, sexually aggressive, sexually passive, tradition, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), unwanted sexual advances |
Author: Kebkab Sirgew Gelaw
International Human Rights Lawyer
Sexual harassment has been a fact of life ever since humans inhabited the earth.[1] Despite its existence, it has been ignored and the tradition has made women keep quite concerning the act as if nothing went wrong. It is hard to unthink what you know, but there was a time when the facts that amount to sexual harassment did not amount to sexual harassment, the facts amounting to the harm did not socially “exist,” had no shape, no cognitive coherence; far less did they state a legal claim.[2]
Sexual harassment is a manifestation of the male domination and has clearly indicated that the domination extended socially, economically, and politically. Women were socially expected to be passive about many activities, which the society believed to be challenging, and those challenges were passed on to men to be handled.
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AfricLaw 
Corporal punishment as a public health concern: Breaking the cycle of violence against children in Africa
Posted: 25 September, 2025 | Author: AfricLaw | Filed under: Nqobani Nyathi | Tags: 1.2 billion children, Africa, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Children with disabilities, corporal punishment of children, dropout rates, General Comment 9, global public health concern, Guidelines on Ending Violence Against Children in Africa, no benefits, physical force, public health crisis, religion, religious traditions, tradition, violence, World Health Organisation (WHO) | 1 CommentDoctoral Candidate, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
On 20 August 2025, the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched a report declaring corporal punishment of children a global public health concern. By definition, corporal punishment is any punishment where physical force is used with the intention of causing some degree of discomfort or pain, however light.
The statistics are staggering. An estimated 1.2 billion children around the world are subjected to corporal punishment at home every year. Children exposed to such violence are more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and emotional instability. These effects often persist into adulthood, increasing the risk of alcohol and drug use, and violent behaviour. In schools, corporal punishment contributes to dropout rates and poor educational outcomes.
Read the rest of this entry »