Remarkable progress has been made in the past year towards universal prohibition of all corporal punishment: now 44 states have achieved this fundamental reform, and governments in a further 45 have expressed their commitment to doing so. Celebration of this accelerating progress is a fitting way to mark the 25th anniversary of the Convention on […]
The number of states in which children are protected from all corporal punishment has risen to 44 since the last Global Initiative newsletter in September 2014. The Global Initiative’s latest newsletter reports on these developments and more, including a call for prohibition from the European Parliament; progress towards prohibition in France, Haiti, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan […]
San Marino has become the latest state to achieve prohibition of all corporal punishment of children in 2014. In September, criminal and family laws were amended to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, including the home. The Law of 26 April 1986 No. 49 on Family Law Reform now states in article 57: “Children have […]
The Global Initiative has updated its leaflet which summarises and illustrates progress and delay worldwide towards prohibiting corporal punishment in all settings. The latest edition, published in November 2014, lists 41 states which have achieved prohibition in all settings. Shortly after the leaflet was published San Marino achieved prohibition, bringing the total number of states […]
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child have issued a new joint general recommendation/general comment on harmful practices, which states that corporal punishment has been recognised as a harmful practice. The general recommendation/general comment identifies harmful practices as those which constitute a denial of […]
At its 112th session (7-31 October 2014), the Human Rights Committee raised the issue of corporal punishment of children with the Governments of Burundi, Haiti, Malta, Montenegro and Sri Lanka. Following examination of each of these states, the Committee made the following remarks and recommendations in its concluding observations: To Burundi, the Committee expressed concern at […]
Another European state has joined the list of those where corporal punishment of children is prohibited in all settings, including the home. The Estonian Parliament has enacted the Child Welfare Act 2014, which prohibits corporal punishment in article 24 (unofficial translation): “(1) It is prohibited to neglect a child, to mentally, emotionally, physically or sexually […]
Six African states have achieved prohibition of corporal punishment of children in all settings, including the family home. But only 8.5% of children in Africa are protected in law from all corporal punishment, while more than a quarter are not protected in any setting of their lives. These facts and many more are graphically illustrated […]
In a ceremony held on 7 October 2014 in the Bicentennial Museum, Buenos Aires, the President of Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner promulgated the new Civil and Commercial Code, which will come into force in January 2016. Article 647 of the Code explicitly prohibits all corporal punishment of children (unofficial translation): “All forms of corporal […]
The past six months have seen three Latin American states enact prohibition of all corporal punishment, bringing the number of states in the region in which children are legally protected from violent punishment in all settings of their lives to seven. Governments in at least a further six states have expressed a commitment to law […]