A round table has taken place with the object of developing a strategy for protecting children from cruelty.

Prime Minister Putin charged the Children’s Support Foundation with heading up the campaign during a session of the executive committee of the Council for the Implementation of Priority National Projects and Demographic Policy held in Sochi. Participants in the meeting included experts in child rehabilitation and social advertising including Elena Topoleva, ASI director. Research commissioned by the foundation and undertaken in April/March 2009 showed that 51.8% of parents had recourse to corporal punishment to train their children. 1.8% said they did so often, 17.8% sometimes and 31.4% rarely. Women tend to resort to corporal punishment more than men because they are more involved in bringing children up. A family’s educational level and degree of material wellbeing have a bearing on the use of corporal punishment in a family.

The deputy chair of the foundation’s board explained that the campaign, which is to start in 2010, is to be directed at all types of violence against children (physical, psychological and sexual) regardless of where it occurs – in the family, school or children’s institution, hospital, outside the home and so on. The campaign will be designed to raise awareness. For this purpose, according to Ms Topoleva, any advertisement, whether in cinematic or leaflet form, should include a link to a website where parents can obtain further information. ‘Often the impulse to strike a child arises because of a lack of parenting skills’, She emphasised. Another expert suggested that for the campaign to be really effective a dedicated confidential telephone line should be set up accessible to the youngest children possible. The children’s rights ombudsman in each region should do that. Furthermore, Ms Topoleva thought that psychologists and other specialists who work with children should be consulted on any prospective social advertisement. The view was also expressed that any such advertisement need not set out to shock; it would be sufficient to convey the necessary information. Advertisements