Towards Childhoods free from Corporal Punishment

A High Level Global Conference “Towards Childhoods free from Corporal Punishment” was hosted by the Austrian Government in Vienna this week, 1 – 2 June 2016. The Conference – which followed the inaugural conference hosted by the Swedish Government in 2014 – marked the 10th anniversary of the presentation of the UN Study on Violence against Children to the General Assembly. At that time, only 16 states had laws clearly prohibiting all corporal punishment of children. Today, this number has tripled; more than half of all UN member states have prohibited corporal punishment in all settings including the home (49) or have clearly committed to doing so (54).

This intergovernmental conference celebrated accelerating progress, but more importantly, aimed to build momentum for further reform, inspiring collaboration within and between governments to build a world where respect for children’s human dignity is the norm rather than the exception. To this end, the Global Initiative prepared a special progress report describing how states can work collaboratively towards universal prohibition of violent punishment. Designed to support action, the report sets out existing regional commitments, how to use opportunities at national level to achieve prohibition, and what is required for states to move from prohibition in law to elimination of all violent punishment of children.

http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/news/06/2016/resolution-to-speed-progress-to-end-all-corporal-punishment-adopted-at-high-level-global-conference.html

The conference in Vienna took place just before the June 5 New Moon which fell exactly on the horizon along with its Grand Cross. The New Moon is conjunct stars of Columba, the Dove and Auriga, the Charioteer. Auriga is a strange figure. He carries a whip in one hand but is also depicted carrying the she goat Capella along with her two kids. The image therefore suggests that taking care of the kids may require corporal punishment at times. However, the stars of the gentle Dove Columba insist that there is also a need to be patient and tolerant. Quite a paradox. But since the New Moon highlights a Jupiter-Saturn square, the following extract from Nick Fiorenza explains why there is now a need to give up older institutionalized ways of dealing with children.

This last quarter Jupiter-Saturn square, occurring now, impels movement and expansion away from societal models, sociopolitical structures, and constructs in our personal lives that have now become limiting and restricting to new growth, an energetic set in motion throughout 2016, one that will continue throughout the last quarter of this 20-year cycle, into 2020. The last quarter of a cycle is about pruning, plowing under the crops and preparing the soil so new growth can emerge in the upcoming cycle. The existing constructs in our lives simply can not support any further growth, thus we either modify those constructs so they can allow a greater level of growth and expansion, or we dismantle those constructs all together.