Global Pathways to Abolishing Physical Punishment

Joan E. Durrant is a Child-Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Family Social Sciences at the University of Manitoba in Canada. Her research focuses on the psychological, cultural, legal and human rights dimensions of corporal punishment of children. She was the principal researcher and co-author of the Canadian Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth; a member of the Research Advisory Committee of the United Nations Secretary-General's Study on Violence against Children; and a co-editor of Eliminating Corporal Punishment: The Way Forward to Constructive Discipline (UNESCO). She has been active in public education on the prevention of child maltreatment in Canada and internationally. Anne B. Smith was the director of the Children's Issues Centre (CIC) at the University of Otago in New Zealand for 12 years, and has been a researcher and writer on childhood and child development for many years. Her book, Understanding Children's Development, has been read by practitioners in many child-related fields. Anne also led the CIC team which wrote the influential report The Discipline and Guidance of Children: Messages from Research, and is involved in public education about research on the effects of physical punishment. She is currently working on a variety of research studies, including projects on children as citizens, early childhood education and family discipline at the University of Otago.