Praneeta Prakash 
The Social Empowerment and Education Programme says it strongly condemns recent public calls to reintroduce corporal punishment in Fiji.
SEEP Executive Director and Human Rights Commissioner Chantelle Khan says the proposal threated to reverse years of progress in protecting the rights and dignity of children, while contradicting Fiji’s national laws and international human rights obligations.
She says corporal punishment is not discipline, it is violence. Khan further says that we cannot teach respect through fear, nor promote learning through pain.
She says Fiji’s Constitution protects every child from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Fiji’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child also obliges the State to safeguard children from all forms of physical or mental violence.
Khan adds that according to the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.2 billion children globally experience corporal punishment each year, with research showing no evidence of positive outcomes.
She says physical punishment is linked to aggression, anxiety, depression, and reduced educational performance.
Khan says any attempt to legitimize corporal punishment would only deepen these harms.
She says reintroducing such practices violates children’s rights and erodes trust between caregivers, teachers, and the young people they nurture.
SEEP is calling on leaders, educators, and communities to reaffirm Fiji’s commitment to non-violent, rights-based discipline and to strengthen public education and parenting programs that build empathy, communication, and mutual respect.
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