I AM WONDERING IF ONLY CHILDREN MUST BE PUNISHED, Paterne, 15.
He is having fun playing with his friends - perhaps a little amused because of the camera on him and his friends - but on closer inspection, Paterne, a 15-year-old child, has a question about a type of punishment that parents inflict on children in his community: The "Feet on the wall"
That day, he came to the Batangafo Children's Club where he and his friends would have to answer the question "What are the key violence against children issue in your community? “ It is hard for a 15-year-old, seeing that “Les pieds au mur” is a type of punishment that seems to be reserved only for children, especially when he sees that everyone makes mistakes and can be punished.
The Central African Republic has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CDE) since 23 April 1992 and the country's child protection code has been promulgated on 15 June 2020. This code prioritizes the right to education, health, protection against violence, sexual exploitation and other abuses to which children are exposed.
In Batangafo (about 380 km from Bangui, in the north of the Central African Republic, and 907 km from Chad), parents have kept some habits of corporal punishment and physical violence inflicted on children that Paterne decries: "Some parents punish their children by making them do what is called “feet to the wall”. However, I am wondering, while we have always made children do the wall, when do we will see Daddy giving Mommy the boot for a mistake? Or when will we see Mum giving Dad the boot for his mistakes?” Paterne said before asking himself “Is it only children who have to be made to jump the gun for mistakes they have made?”