Women - End Corporal Punishment of Children

CEDAW recommends prohibition at 68th session

Peace — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 18:30:56 +0000

At the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women’s 68^th session, recommendations and observations on corporal punishment were issued to states under review:

To Kuwait, the Committee expressed concern about the Penal Code provision allowing parents to physically discipline their child and recommended its repeal.
To Singapore, the Committee recommended the revision and/or repeal of relevant legislation in order to prohibit and eliminate corporal punishment of children in all settings. During the dialogue, the Government stated that it “would consider the issue” of introducing a blanket ban of corporal punishment of children.
During the dialogue with Oman, the Committee raised the issue of the Penal Code provision allowing the “disciplining” of a child, stating that it was “no longer acceptable”. Despite this and the continued legality of corporal punishment of children in the home, in care settings and in penal institutions, no recommendation on the issue was extended.

For further details, see the Global Initiative’s individual country reports for Kuwait, Oman and Singapore.

For further information on the obligation to prohibit corporal punishment under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and to see the Committee’s recommendations in full, see the Global Initiative’s page on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

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Domestic violence and corporal punishment – new leaflet from the Global Initiative

Peace — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 11:19:15 +0000

The Commission on the Status of Women meets in March for its 59^th session, during which it will examine global progress towards addressing violence against women in the 20 years since the adoption in 1995 of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. During those two decades, 39 states have prohibited all corporal punishment of children, including in the home – but only four of those have done so in the context of enacting new domestic violence/family protection laws. Most domestic violence laws are silent on the issue.

This new briefing published jointly by the Global Initiative and Save the Children sets out the reasons why excluding prohibition of corporal punishment from laws on domestic violence and family protection represents a failure to properly address the issue and to fulfil obligations under international human rights law – and why this can only undermine the promotion of violence-free homes. It looks at the research in the short and long term linking corporal punishment of children with violence in intimate relationships between adults. It also presents the work of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in relation to prohibition of corporal punishment.

At least 34 states are currently developing laws against domestic violence and, therefore, are presented with immediate opportunities for achieving prohibition of corporal punishment – with the potential to extend legal protection from all corporal punishment in the home to a third of the world’s child population. This leaflet – Prohibiting violent punishment of girls and boys – a key element in ending family violence – is a key resource to encourage all those working with and for the rights of women and girls to see prohibition of corporal punishment as a fundamental element in addressing gender-based violence and to advocate strongly for this necessary law reform.

The leaflet is available here.

For hard copies and further information, contact info@endcorporalpunishment.org.

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Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and Committee on the Rights of the Child’s new joint general recommendation/general comment on harmful practices

Peace — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 08:35:04 +0000

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child have issued a new joint general recommendation/general comment on harmful practices, which states that corporal punishment has been recognised as a harmful practice.

The general recommendation/general comment identifies harmful practices as those which constitute a denial of the dignity and/or integrity of the individual and a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms; constitute discrimination against women or children and result in negative consequences for them; are prescribed and/or kept in place by social norms that perpetuate male dominance and inequality of women and children; and are imposed on women and children by family, community members or society at large.

In the general recommendation/general comment, the Committees call on states to explicitly prohibit harmful practices by law. States must ensure that all legislation which condones, allows, or leads to harmful practices is repealed and that legislation which aims to effectively address and eliminate harmful practices complies with human rights standards and takes precedence over customary, traditional or religious laws which allow, condone or prescribe any harmful practice. The general recommendation/general comment states that it should be read in conjunction with the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment No. 8 (2006) on the right of the child to protection from corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment.

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Submission on ending discrimination against women in family life

Peace — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 06:36:27 +0000

The Global Initiative has made a submission to the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women in Law and Practice’s call for submissions on Good Practices in the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in Family and Cultural Life.

The submission highlights that prohibition of violent punishment of girls and boys is a key measure to end violence against girls and women and promote equality in family life. It calls on the Working Group to draw attention to the human rights imperative to prohibit all corporal punishment and recommend that all states incorporate law reform to prohibit corporal punishment in strategies to address discrimination against women in the family in its report on Good Practices in the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in Family and Cultural Life.

Download the submission here.

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Submission on ending discrimination against women in family life

Peace — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 06:32:32 +0000

Download the submission here.

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