World Vision Lebanon is now celebrating the accomplishment of the first draft of the child protection law, a project that started in March 2007.

As part of its mandate to speak on behalf of children who are suffering violence, World Vision Lebanon joined efforts with Save the Children Sweden, the Rene Mouawad Foundation and the Higher Council for Childhood to write this law.

Members from the above non-governmental organizations formed the 'Anti-corporal Punishment Coalition' to work on policy change by developing a set of legal regulations to prevent and address violence against children.

This new law to ban violence against children will be introduced to Lebanese Parliament in early 2008, if the political situation in the country allows a proper legislative work.

'World Vision Lebanon has decided to prioritize violence against children as the core issue of its advocacy work because this chronic problem requires urgent action to address the endemic causes that place children in an extremely vulnerable situation,' said Patricio Cuevas-Parra, World Vision Lebanon's advocacy and protection manager.



'Legal uncertainty is one of the main concerns and because of this we are working in the legislative arena,' Cuevas-Parra said.

'This new law will be a legacy for all Lebanese, not just for the World Vision sponsored communities.' he said.

The influence of the patriarchal culture in Lebanese society and the absence of judicial procedures to regulate domestic violence are evident in the Lebanese Penal Code, which states that children can be physically punished by their parents.


'Corporal punishment is accepted and justified in Lebanon as means of discipline and education,' Cuevas-Parra said.

'Rarely is this type of violence reported to the competent authorities, unless there is a real danger of death,' he said.

To address this situation, the Anti-corporal Punishment Coalition is working on three levels.

The Coalition has just finished drafting the law – which is the first level – and is now moving to the second level by conducting national awareness raising activities. Through media campaigns, the Coalition is working to influence government officials, policy makers, stakeholders, and communities to protect children from violence. The third level will involve the development of training courses to educate teachers in alternative and non-violent forms of discipline in schools.

'As part of our mandate to give a voice to children and to involve them in the decision-making process, we will consult with children in the Children's Council - a group of 60 children (6 representatives from each Area Development Programme) aged 8 to 17 years old, from different denominational, religious and ethnic background - in January. We believe the involvement of children is critical to ensure their inclusion and ownership of issues relating to them, and to reduce dependency and achieve a broader impact,' said Patricio Cuevas-Parra.