10Apr, 2024
Progress in Africa
States prohibiting all corporal punishment
2020 - Seychelles, Guinea
2019 - South Africa
2015 - Benin
2013 - Cabo Verde
2011 - South Sudan
2010 - Congo (Republic of), Kenya, Tunisia
2007 - Togo
Regional campaigns against corporal punishment
Human Rights Watch Index on Corporal Punishment for the Middle East and North Africa
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Regional publications and articles
Day of the African Child (DAC) 2022: ‘Eliminating Harmful Practices Affecting Children: Progress on Policy and Practice since 2013’
30th anniversary of the African Charter: progress on prohibition and elimination of corporal punishment (2021)
Progress in North Africa (Arabic, English, French) (2017)
Progress in West and Central Africa (English, French) (2017)
A series of booklets answering common questions about prohibiting all corporal punishment of children, including a booklet for children and one answering specific questions about corporal punishment in schools. Now available in 14 languages.
News from Africa
Regional human rights
The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) regularly calls on states to prohibit and eliminate all corporal punishment
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has found that legislation permitting flogging violates the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
The Arab Charter on Human Rights requires states to ensure the prohibition of all forms of violence by family members, particularly against women and children
The Cairo Declaration on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Islamic Jurisprudence confirms the obligation to prohibit all corporal punishment of children