The Humanistic Education Foundation is calling for people to pledge to end corporal punishment of children, in an Internet event to commemorate International Spank Out Day on April 30.
National Spank Out Day originated in the US in 1998 to educate people about nonviolent parenting alternatives, but since 2001, other organizations outside the US have adopted the event.
Foundation executive director Joanna Feng (馮喬蘭) yesterday said that Taiwan first observed the day in 2006, and in 2014 the government passed the Implementation Act of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (兒童權利公約施行法), based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
As of this month, more than 56 countries ban all forms of corporal punishment against children, she said, adding that the foundation hopes that Taiwan could move in such a direction.
The foundation wants all children to grow up in a happy, safe environment, where they do not have to fear corporal punishment, she said.
Due to COVID-19 prevention efforts, the foundation has substituted its original planned event with an online one.
It is also holding a raffle for anyone who posts on the foundation’s Facebook page to show support for the movement.
So far, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁); Democratic Progressive Party legislators Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅), Fan Yun (范雲), Lee Li-fen (李麗芬) and Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟); and Control Yuan member Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) have shown their support by posting on the event’s Facebook page, the foundation said.
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