Pacific discussion on discipline vs child abuse

Last Updated: Fri, 9 Dec 2011 17:15:00 +1100

Child protection workers from across the Pacific are meeting in Fiji to share their success stories and and to set goals for the next year.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) - which has organised the gathering - says the aim of the five days of workshops is to to ensure children are increasingly free from violence, abuse and exploitation.

UNICEF's chief of child protection, Johanna Eriksson Takyo, told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat there are sometimes differences of opinion over what is normal disciplining of children, and what constitutes actual child abuse.

"Parents in the Pacific, as parents in other countries, want very good things for their children," she said.

"They want children to grow up knowing what is right and what is wrong...and physical punishment or corporal punishment is not always seen as abusive when it's done in the interest of the discipline and bringing up children.

"But I think through the discourse that UNICEF and others are able to have, we are able to also discuss the impact that physical violence, emotional and verbal abuse actually has on the child, and through that dialogue, we're able to slowly but surely change some of those attitudes."

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