March 12 – Welcoming the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the NHRCK, in conjunction with the Save the Children, hosted an international workshop on the international trend toward the abolition of corporal punishment, intending to seek disciplinary alternatives for children. In the keynote speech by Peter Newell, a member of the Advisory Panel for the UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children and in the forefront of the movement to ban corporal punishment, Mr. Newell briefed that 24 states parties to the UN are banning all forms of corporal punishment and at least 26 states either promulgated their will to abolish corporal punishment or are discussing the enactment of laws on the abolition of corporal punishment in their parliaments. In addition, New Zealand was reviewed as the first to abolish corporal punishment through a law enacted in June 2007 among Asian Pacific countries. In addition, Mr. Newell recommended appropriate disciplinary alternatives before the Korean society reached an agreement on the banning of corporate punishment.
