At the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council, held in June/July 2016, the final working group reports of states reviewed in the 24th session of the UPR in January 2016 were adopted and Governments gave their formal responses to recommendations they didn’t respond to during the UPR session. Fourteen states were reviewed in the 24th session:

• Mozambique had already accepted recommendations to prohibit all corporal punishment and has been added to the list of states committed to achieving full prohibition.
• Recommendations to prohibit all corporal punishment of children were accepted by Namibia, Seychelles and Sierra Leone; these are all new commitments and so these states can now be added to the list of states committed to achieving full prohibition. The Government of Seychelles also confirmed that the education law is being revised to include prohibition and consideration will now be given to amending the Children Act.
• Palau accepted recommendations to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings and re-stated its commitment to amending legislation, especially in relation to education.
• Having already accepted a recommendation to prohibit all corporal punishment, Belgium noted another recommendation to prohibit but said it couldn’t be implemented.
• One recommendation to prohibit all corporal punishment was accepted by the Solomon Islands; another was noted. The Government confirmed that the Education Bill would prohibit corporal punishment and said the Child and Family Welfare Bill would address “fair discipline”.
• Recommendations to prohibit all corporal punishment were noted by Somalia and Singapore.
• No recommendations specifically on corporal punishment were made to Niger or Paraguay but general recommendations to harmonise legislation with CRC were accepted by both; in reporting to the Human Rights Council at its 31st session, the Government of Paraguay referred to incorporating the principles of the CRC into law.

Denmark, Estonia and Latvia were also reviewed in the 24th session; all three states have already achieved prohibition of all corporal punishment of children. During the review of Denmark, the Government reported that prohibition was soon to be achieved in Greenland; this has since been achieved.

For further details, see the Global Initiative’s individual country reports: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Palau, Paraguay, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia.