NEW REPORT: Ending Legalised Violence against Children: Prohibiting and Eliminating Corporal Punishment in all Alternative Care and Day Care Settings 

The report aims to accelerate the prohibition and elimination of all corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading punishment in all alternative care and day care - supporting its universal prohibition and elimination in all settings of children's lives. It is designed to be used to promote prohibition, including by raising awareness about children's right to protection, supporting the use of human rights mechanisms in campaigning for law reform and providing guidance on the drafting and implementation of legislation which prohibits all corporal punishment.  Read the full report at:

http://www.crin.org/BCN/details.asp?id=27900&themeID=1004&topicID=1029

The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, with technical support from UNICEF, launched a study on attitudes towards residential care in Cambodia to understand prevailing attitudes and to generate evidence for policy development and advocacy. Cambodia has seen a dramatic increase in residential care facilities, but also a growing realization that a comprehensive social protection system is needed, with important provisions for family and child welfare services. As residential care is perceived as one of the few services available to vulnerable families, the norms and attitudes that drive families, communities and donors to support residential care will help to inform key messages and plan appropriate community-based services.  Read the entire report at:

http://www.crin.org/BCN/details.asp?id=27901&themeID=1002&topicID=1017

Research examining the well-being and situation of young people leaving institutional care in Africa remains a little noticed field of study. The study wishes to improve the understanding of the experiences of careleavers in Kenya during the transition process, by allowing them to have their own voices heard. In so doing, the research concentrates on building a holistic insight into the young people's social, economic and cultural circumstances. The study is concerned with documenting the young people's own views of what has happened during the time of leaving care and afterwards. Moreover, it explores in-depth the experiences of care leavers during the dynamic phase following their separation from an institutional care setting. It argues that many care leavers end up finding themselves in a difficult transition process blurring the boundaries between youth and adulthood.  Read the full report via the link below:

http://www.crin.org/BCN/details.asp?id=27902&themeID=1002&topicID=1017 

The study demonstrates a relationship between exposure to violence and aggressive behavior in children and the results suggest that violence experienced in residential care has a bigger impact on children's well-being than violence experienced earlier in the family of origin or when visiting school and can severely contribute to mental ill-health. The findings also reveal that mental health can be improved by implementing a new instructional system and psychotherapeutic treatment in residential care, supporting the assumption that, although living in residential care increases the risk of mental ill-health in children, a good quality of caretaking can buffer negative effects.

To receive the full study, contact the Better Care Network at [email protected]