Human Rights Council’s 47th session adopted final reports for UPR 37

During its 47^th session, the Human Rights Council adopted the final working group reports for the Universal Periodic Review’s 37^th session, which included states’ final formal responses to all recommendations extended. States can either accept or ‘note’ UPR recommendations:

• Lebanon, Mauritania, Micronesia, Nauru and St Lucia accepted recommendations to prohibit corporal punishment of children. We will be following up with them to confirm their intentions to introduce prohibiting legislation.
• Sao Tome and Principe and St Kitts and Nevis noted (rejected) recommendations to prohibit in all settings.  Sao Tome and Principe stating that “Nowhere in the legal system of Sao Tome and Principe is there any law that allows for the corporal punishment of children... At this stage, there is no justification for accepting this recommendation.”
• Rwanda did not respond to a recommendation to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings.
• Despite the ongoing legality of corporal punishment in Australia and Oman, no recommendations on the issue were made to them. They both supported general recommendations on the protection of children from violence.
• Prohibiting states Austria (enacted in 1989) and Georgia (enacted in 2019) respectively accepted recommendations to raise awareness about the prohibition and to prohibit in “all education institutions”.

Visit our page on the Universal Periodic Review for more information on the review process

See also the individual country reports of states reviewed in the 37th session: Australia, Austria, Georgia, Lebanon, Mauritania, Micronesia, Nauru, Nepal, Oman, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, St Kitts and Nevis and St Lucia.

For further information:

Read about global progress towards universal prohibition of corporal punishment here.

Find out how you can support the campaign to protect all children from corporal punishment here.

Learn more about the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.