A/HRC/40/50 Representative and the Permanent Missions of Lithuania and Mexico also hosted a highlevel panel discussion at the United Nations to share positive experiences and mobilize support for the further implementation of the report’s recommendations. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) participated in the panel and presented the findings from its monitoring report, “School violence and bullying: global status and trends, drivers and consequences”.6 24. Bullying and other forms of violence in and around schools endanger the protection and academic performance of children; they also affect the health and well-being of children, and their capacity to develop open and trusting relations. The impact of violence in school goes beyond the children who are its direct victims, negatively affecting the lives of those who witness it and creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity that undermines effective learning. Ensuring that all schools are havens of non-violence is the goal of the Safe to Learn campaign launched in January 2019 with the support of the Special Representative. The campaign is aimed at preventing and addressing school violence, promoting evidence-based interventions, and mobilizing the resources needed to end all violence in schools by 2024. 25. The use of violent discipline is a particularly pervasive form of violence against children, and it often starts in early childhood, as highlighted in the Special Representative’s recent report.7 According to a UNICEF report, A Familiar Face, shouting, yelling and screaming are common forms of discipline for 1-year-olds, close to 300 million children between 2 and 4 years of age experience psychological aggression and/or physical punishment by their caregivers at home, and 176 million children under 5 years of age witness domestic violence. 26. There is increasing recognition of the need to end the use of violent discipline. More than 50 States have enacted comprehensive legislation banning the use of violence as a form of discipline, correction or punishment, most recently in Nepal, and many other countries are moving in the same direction. In December 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics published an important policy statement 8 providing guidance to paediatricians and other health-care providers on educating parents about positive and effective strategies to discipline children at different stages of development. The policy statement pointed to evidence that corporal punishment and yelling at or shaming children are minimally effective for discipline in the short term and not effective in the long term. It also linked corporal punishment to an increased risk of negative behavioural, cognitive, psychosocial and emotional outcomes for children. Evidence on the negative impact of corporal punishment was reinforced by recent research pointing to an association between the introduction of a legal ban on corporal punishment in all settings and lower levels of youth violence, an association that held even after differences between countries in factors such as wealth and violent crime were statistically controlled.9 27. In June 2018, the High-Level Global Conference on the Universal Prohibition of Corporal Punishment10 was convened under the patronage of the President of Malta. It was preceded by a regional consultation in Latin America and the Caribbean, hosted by the Government of Mexico.11 The Conference provided a strategic platform to share national experiences, reflect on lessons learned and consider how best to accelerate progress in ending the use of corporal punishment. Delivering the keynote address, the Special Representative recalled the significant progress achieved in recent years, as well as the urgent need to close the gap between international standards on the protection of children from all forms of violence and the reality on the ground. 6 7 8 9 10 11 6 Available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0026/002657/265781e.pdf. Available at https://violenceagainstchildren.un.org/news/violence-prevention-must-start-earlychildhood. Pediatrics, vol. 142, issue 6 (December 2018). Frank Elgar et al., “Corporal punishment bans and physical fighting in adolescents: an ecological study of 88 countries”, BMJ Open, vol. 8, issue 9. See https://violenceagainstchildren.un.org/news/srsg-santos-pais-welcomes-states%E2%80%99commitment-towards-elimination-corporal-punishment-children. See https://violenceagainstchildren.un.org/node/2569.