Earlier this year, the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child adopted the General Comment No. 5 (2018) on “State Party Obligations under the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Article 1) and systems strengthening for child protection”.   The General Comment lays out what obligations state parties […]

Our African newsletters are published quarterly in English and French, providing a round-up of recent developments, campaigns and positive moves towards ending corporal punishment from across the continent. This latest edition also presents new resources to support advocacy on the issue, as well as information from African and UN human rights monitoring bodies, including new […]

In July 2018, South Africa’s draft Children’s Third Amendment Bill was published and opened for comment by the Department of Social Development. The Bill proposes a number of amendments to the Children’s Act, including repealing the common law defence of reasonable chastisement that allows parents and carers to lawfully subject children to corporal punishment. The […]

Concluding observations from the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child’s 29th session have been published. Although the examination of Sierra Leone was postponed to a later session, the remaining four states under examination received recommendations on corporal punishment of children: To Chad, the Committee recommended prohibition in all settings, […]