Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/987221
OPINION 27 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MAY 2018 CORPORAL punishment, or physical punishment, is intended to cause pain to a person. It has, historically, been most often practised on children, especially within the home or in a school setting. Such acts of violence are not only a violation of a child's rights but are also a serious attack on the child's intrinsic human dignity. As we all know, children develop their personalities and attitudes based upon the experiences they have received, particularly at the most formative periods in their young lives. This should be fully understood by all caregiv- ers, within the context of the far-reaching and long-term negative effects that violence can have upon the psyche of a child. One typical example, from a study published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect reports that, regardless of the culture or community a child lives in, corporal punishment is "a potential source of lasting psychological harm." Corporal punishment does not improve children's behav- iour, but rather, demonstrates aggressive attitudes which can manifest in antisocial and destructive activities. In February 2014, the Mal- tese Parliament amended the Criminal Code to effectively prohibit all corporal punish- ment of Maltese children. Before this reform, the exer- cise of "moderate" corporal punishment was accepted. However, the 2014 amend- ment added a clause to the article clarifying that no form of corporal punishment can be considered "moderate". Indeed, the amended article now makes clear that a parent may be deprived of the rights of parental authority, "if the parent, exceeding the bounds of reasonable chastisement, ill-treats the child, or neglects [the child's] education". Reasonable chastisement can no longer be considered an excuse for physically harm- ing children, because there is nothing reasonable about inflicting violence upon our children. Outside the home, corporal punishment is also entirely unlawful in schools, day care centres, alternative care set- tings, and penal institutions. In this regard, while we must acknowledge that Malta has made significant legislative progress in this regard, chang- ing the hearts and minds re- quires a cultural shift, backed up by appropriate and effective policies and support. For this reason, I believe that it is crucial for us to prioritise a cultural change in our Mal- tese society. We need to move beyond a culture of shame and silence, in order to create the necessary healing within our families and communities. For us to achieve this essen- tial change, my Office and my Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, in collaboration with the Ministry for the Fami- ly, Children's Rights and Social Solidarity, and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion, are organising a High-Level Global Conference on the Universal Prohibition of Corporal Punishment. This conference, which will take place between May 31 and June 1, 2018, is bringing together experts and profes- sionals from the United Na- tions, Council of Europe, Euro- pean Commission, European Parliament, and participants from a wide variety of other organisations and nations. Prior to the event, my Foundation brought together national stakeholders from diverse sectors, to gather information and insight into the situation in our Maltese Islands, and how best to move forward. In this context, I am encour- aged by the National Strategic Policy on Positive Parenting launched in 2016, and I augur that it shall be implemented with every urgency, in order to nurture family well-being, and the best interests of the child. Children need even more of such additional safeguards to protect them from violence. For this reason, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is the most widely ratified UN Convention in the world, outlines that countries must "take all appropriate legisla- tive, administrative, social and educational measures to pro- tect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence". In addition, countries across the world are committed to achieve the United Nations' Agenda 2030, and its Sustain- able Development Goals. SDG 16 specifically aims to promote peaceful and inclusive socie- ties, with target 16.2 specifi- cally aiming to end all forms of violence against children by 2030. Abolishing corporal punish- ment must be an essential component of our strate- gies for ending every form of violence against children. The role of the media, alongside legal reform and social policy, is clear in this regard. The international community cannot stand by, while the physical punishment of chil- dren is trivialised, normalised, or ignored in many parts of the world. Humanity must hold itself to account. I would like to take this opportunity to urge closer collaboration between the international media, civil society, professional sectors, and respective authorities, to put the issue of the abolition of the physical punishment of children on the global agenda. By challenging corporal pun- ishment, we are united in pur- suit of the equal right of every child, to have their human dignity and physical integrity protected and safeguarded. Violence against children, including corporal punish- ment, can have no part in a culture that is built on the values of dignity, of justice, and of peace. This opinion appears ahead of a high-level global confer- ence on the Universal Prohibi- tion of Corporal Punishment in Malta between 31 May and 1 June No to violence against children the wheel through blockchain Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca Evarist Bartolo is minister for education and employment Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca is President of the Republic matching multiple educational programmes at a relatively early age. The model we use to certify educational programmes is stuck in medieval times. You spend four years doing an undergraduate programme and have just a paper certificate to show for it. It ends up locked in some drawer. When a person lists a degree on a CV, the process is based on trust. Some employers do verify, but many don't. The issue further complicates itself if you have many certificates in the mix. You have your O'Levels, your undergraduate degree, your Masters and a few programmes you may have fol- lowed during a previous job. So, you have a stack of papers and you're expected to go around with them during interviews. And how does anyone even verify a paper document any- how? Do they look at the stamp or how serious the calligraphy work is? As I said, it's all a very stale process. And in the age of driverless cars and digital assis- tants that can buy flight tickets for you, it is all very yesteryear. Which is why we're going to change this. In January 2017, the Education Ministry signed an MOU with Learning Ma- chine to explore the feasibility of blockchain credential pilots and the following Septem- ber we started the pilot. As we speak Malta is the first nation-state to have graduates in national institutions with blockchain certification. In the coming months, the same will apply to school-leaving certifi- cates, competence certificates for disadvantaged groups (such as refugees) and licences for institutions accredited by the National Commission for Fur- ther and Higher Education. At the end of this scholas- tic year, all fifth formers in state schools will get their school-leaving certification on blockchain as well. Thousands of young people will have a simpler, safer and much more efficient process to access their certification. If other educa- tional institutions or employ- ers would like to verify these certificates it takes only a few touches on one's phone. It's really that easy. More impor- tantly, these young people will start accumulating different certificates in one place for ease of use. In a world where they will be expected to experi- ence lifelong learning, and be lifelong recipients of different accreditations, this is going to be very important. It's self-sovereign, trust- worthy, transparent and impos- sible to destroy because it's not stored on a database in some government building. Malta is the first to do this, and other countries are quickly realising the enormous poten- tial, and competitive edge, of all this. We must continue build- ing on this very exciting tech- nology and find different ways to amplify its value further.