Office of the Ombudsman, Samoa‘s National Human Rights Institution Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child – September 2015 in the previous year.56 The most common types of physical violence were hitting, smacking, and slapping and the most common implements for hitting were hands and sticks.57 62. In village focus group discussions conducted by the NHRI for the SHRR, participants often vehemently discussed the rights of parents to physically discipline a child in whatever form they chose because it is viewed as an effective method of discipline that has been used over the generations to correct inappropriate behaviour and train children.58 It is seen as a practice consistent with the Fa’asamoa.59Further, child rearing in Samoa is strongly influenced by Christian practices and values.60 Thus, if the child does disobey the parents or elders, it is common that they are physically and verbally disciplined. 63. Despite the high incidence of corporal punishment, the Samoan government found that only 0.2% of respondents to their fieldwork on child protection61 consider corporal punishment to be an effective way to discipline a child. Instead, positive discipline techniques such as good communication between parent and child were considered to be the best way to discipline children.62 As such, educating families on positive discipline techniques should lead to acceptance of this as an alternative to corporal punishment.63 Recommendation 11: Corporal punishment in the family and community should be addressed both through awareness raising and legislative reform: The Samoan Government should be supported in their continued efforts to advocate for zero tolerance of corporal punishment at the village level64combined with further awareness-raising activities. 56 Ministry of Women Child Social Development, Child Protection Baseline 2013, available at: http://www.mwcsd.gov.ws/images/stories/division-forwomen/2014/child%20protection/Samoa%20baseline%2027Nov.pdf [accessed 25 June 2015] at 10 and 17. 57 Ibid, at 18. 58 This is viewed not only for ‗stopping cheeky behaviour‘ but also for teaching wrong from right, particularly as laid out in Proverbs 22:6, ―Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.‖ 59 Input from qualitative responses to school Survey located on file at the NHRI. 60 For example, many village participants paraphrased Proverbs 13:24, ―Spare the rod, spoil the child.‖ 61 Adults, children and community and church leaders; Ministry of Women Community and Social Development ―Child Protection Baseline Report for Samoa 2013‖http://www.mwcsd.gov.ws/images/stories/division-forwomen/2014/child%20protection/Samoa%20baseline%2027Nov.pdf [accessed 3 September 2015] p18 62 SLRC, Child Protection Legislation Report 2013, available at: http://www.samoalawreform.gov.ws/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Care-and-Protection-Legislation-toProtect-Children-Issues-Paper.pdf[accessed 25 June 2015] at 19 63 Ibid at 18 64 Ministry of Women Community and Social Development, Consolidated Second, Third and Fourth Periodic Report on the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, available at: http://www.mwcsd.gov.ws/images/stories/PUBLICATIONS%20WEBSITE/2014/CRC%20Report%202 013/1.CRC%20Second%20periodic%20report%20FINAL.pdf [accessed 25 June 2015]. 20