KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — Child rights groups here are now demanding corporal punishment be outlawed in Malaysia, after the scandalous abuse case involving a Malaysian couple in Sweden hit global headlines.

P. Nagasayee Malathy, executive director of Protect and Save The Children, said that physical punishment violates the child’s right to protection and could affect other rights like the right to development, participation and survival.

“As a country which has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, everyone is responsible for ensuring and promoting the rights of the children,” Malathy told The Malay Mail Online when contacted, referring to the United Nations treaty.

“We don’t agree with the view of the parents that they can smack them or punish them lightly since there is no measurement to define what is light and grave when it comes to corporal punishment and abuse to children.

“Particularly with children, such misconceptions could lead to higher degrees of abuse,” she added.

Shalwati Norshal and husband Azizul Raheem Awaluddin are standing trial in Stockholm for committing gross violation of integrity against their four children — aged between seven and 14 years — and for assault.

According to statements by their children, Shalwati was accused of hitting them at their home in Stockholm for several years, even with items like a piece of wood, a coat hanger, canes, a carpet beater and a belt.

The couple was detained on December 18 last year after being accused of beating their children for not praying.

Since Sweden outlawed corporal punishment in 1979, making it the first country in the world to do so, 34 other nations have followed suit in abolishing all forms of physical punishment against children.

According to the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children’s website, a majority of the countries with such a ban are from Europe.

Voice of the Children (VoC) president Sharmila Sekaran said that corporal punishment is a form of child abuse.

“We should treat children as individuals who have their own rights,” Sharmila told The Malay Mail Online.

“They’re not an extension of us, they’re not our property, they’re not our chattel. They are human beings,” she added.

Child rights activist Dr Hartini Zainudin similarly said that corporal punishment should be prohibited in Malaysia, including in schools, where caning is common.

“I don’t think a child will learn anything through physical violence,” Hartini told The Malay Mail Online.

She also stressed that corporal punishment is not simply part of Asian culture, but a worldwide phenomenon.

“I know lots of parents in Asian countries who don’t hit, and I know a lot of parents in Western countries who do hit,” said Hartini.

Childline Malaysia project director PH Wong said that almost 50 per cent of the calls received by the children’s helpline, Childline, are related to psychological problems.

“How would adults like to be punished with the cane or be slapped? If we don’t want it for ourselves, why do we do it for children?” Wong questioned.

“It’s not just the physical trauma; it impacts on the child’s psychosocial and mental health,” she added.