During its 80^th session, the Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended the prohibition of corporal punishment of children in all settings to all states examined:

• To Bahrain, the Committee expressed concern that corporal punishment was still legal and recommended the explicit prohibition of corporal punishment in all settings, along with the adequate enforcement and monitoring of said prohibition. It also recommended the strengthening of existing awareness-raising programmes promoting alternative non-violent forms of discipline.
• The Committee recommended that Belgium explicitly prohibits all corporal punishment in legislation, including in the home and in alternative care, and that it promotes positive discipline including through awareness-raising programmes and campaigns.
• The Government of Guinea informed the Committee of its plans to explicitly prohibit all corporal punishment of children in the draft Children’s Code. The Committee recommended the Code’s expedited adoption and that Guinea ensures that corporal punishment is prohibited by law in all settings and that article 398 of the Civil Code on the “right to correction” of parents is repealed.
• The Committee urged Italy to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment, however light, by law in all settings, and to raise awareness of the harmful effects of corporal punishment and promote alternative non-violent forms of discipline.
• To Japan, the Committee highlighted the necessity to take urgent measures of the issue of corporal punishment of children. It expressed concern over the fact that corporal punishment is not fully prohibited in law in the home and in alternative care settings, that the Civil Code and the Child Abuse Prevention Act allow the use of “appropriate” discipline and that the existing prohibition in schools is not effectively implemented. It recommended that Japan explicitly and fully prohibits all corporal punishment, including in the home, and that it strengthens its efforts to eliminate corporal punishment.
• Finally, the Committee recommended to the Syrian Arab Republic that it explicitly prohibits corporal punishment of children in all settings and repeals the provisions in domestic legislation which authorise its use in childrearing.

For further details, see the Global Initiative’s individual country reports for Bahrain, Belgium, Guinea, Italy, Japan and the Syrian Arab Republic.

For further information on the obligation to prohibit corporal punishment under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to see the Committee’s recommendations in full, see the Global Initiative’s page on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.