CRPD recommends prohibition at latest session
At its 20th session in August-September 2018, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities issued recommendations on corporal punishment:
- In line with the submissions of the Global Initiative and of the South African Human Rights Commission, as well as Target 16.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recommended to South Africa that the Children’s Act is amended without delay to explicitly prohibit all forms of corporal punishment in all settings. The draft Children’s Third Amendment Bill was opened for comment in July 2018 by the Department of Social Development and included the repeal of the repeal of the “moderate and reasonable chastisement” defence but did not explicitly prohibit all corporal punishment.
- Despite prohibition being enacted in TFYR Macedonia in 2013, the Committee recommended the “criminalisation” of corporal punishment of children in all settings.
For further details, see the Global Initiative’s individual country reports for South Africa and TFYR Macedonia.
For further information on the obligation to prohibit corporal punishment under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and to see the Committee’s recommendations in full, see the Global Initiative’s page on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.