Dr. Joan Durrant

Dr. Joan Durrant is a Child-Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Community Health Sciences in the Max Rady College of medicine at the University of Manitoba.  Her research focuses on the psychological, cultural, legal and human rights dimensions of corporal punishment of children in Canada and worldwide.  She co-authored the Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth, and co-edited Eliminating Corporal Punishment: The Way Forward to Constructive Discipline (UNESCO), Global Pathways to Abolishing Physical Punishment: Realizing Children’s Rights (Routledge), and Decolonizing Discipline: Children, Corporal Punishment, Christian Theologies, and Reconciliation (University of Manitoba Press).  She was a member of the Research Advisory Group to the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children.  In collaboration with Save the Children Sweden, she created Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting, a primary violence prevention program based on child rights standards that has been implemented in more than 30 countries. 

Dr. Durrant is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and recipient of many awards for her scholarship and community service, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, YWCA Women of Distinction Award, Canadian Red Cross Humanitarian of the Year, Children’s Rights Supporter Award (Canadian Coalition for Children’s Rights), Researcher of the Year (Child Welfare League of Canada), and the Dr. John M. Bowman Memorial Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation Award.