During its 38^th session, the Human Rights Council adopted the final working group reports of the Universal Periodic Review’s 29^th session. States which had left their responses to recommendations pending were under the obligation to either ‘support’ (accept) or ‘note’ them before the start of the session.

• The United Arab Emirates supported recommendations to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, making a clear commitment to enacting law reform. Earlier in 2018, the United Arab Emirates had already become a Pathfinder country with the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, committing to three to five years of accelerated action towards the achievement of Target 16.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals. This brings the number of states committed to full prohibition of all corporal punishment to 57.
• Serbia renewed its commitment to enacting prohibition by supporting several recommendations to prohibit. Work is reportedly underway to enact amending legislation to prohibit all corporal punishment of children.
• Barbados gave a mixed response to recommendations to prohibit corporal punishment, supporting some and noting others. In particular, the Government supported a recommendation to expedite the adoption of the Juvenile Justice Bill to prohibit judicial corporal punishment.
• Burundi supported a recommendation to “take legislative measures to put an end to corporal punishment in all settings”, stating that supported recommendations were “of priority national interest and Burundi would take all measures needed to implement them”.
• France partially supported several recommendations to prohibit in all settings, declaring that it already had enacted “domestic criminal legislation which criminalised and severely punished all forms of violence against children” and highlighting that, for parents who have used corporal punishment, “it is not a solution to send them in front of a judge (…) to promote an education without violence is first and foremost about convictions and growing as a society”.
• The Bahamas noted two recommendations to prohibit corporal punishment of children in all settings.

For further details, see the Global Initiative’s news item on the initial outcomes of the 29^th session of the Universal Periodic Review. See also the individual country reports of states reviewed in UPR 29: Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Burundi, France, Israel, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mali, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Tonga, and the United Arab Emirates.