Date: April 2008

Human Rights Council urges States to prohibit corporal punishment

At its seventh session in March, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the rights of the child. In the preamble, the Council emphasises “that the Convention on the Rights of the Child must constitute the standard in the promotion and protection of the rights of the child”, and welcomes the report of the independent expert for the United Nations study on violence against children (which had recommended prohibition of all corporal punishment in all settings, including the home) and general comment No. 8 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (on the child’s right to protection from all corporal punishment).

Corporal punishment is addressed in paragraph 13 of the resolution, in which the Human Rights Council urges states:

1. to take effective and appropriate legislative and other measures or, where they exist, strengthen legislation to prohibit and eliminate all forms of violence against children, in all settings;
   
   
2. To take all appropriate measures to prevent, and to protect children from, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and from all forms of violence as a matter of urgency, including physical, mental and sexual violence, child abuse and exploitation, domestic  violence and neglect, and abuse by the police, other law enforcement authorities and employees and officials in detention centres or welfare institutions, including orphanages....;
   
   
3. To take appropriate measures to assert the right of children to respect for their human dignity and physical integrity and to prohibit and eliminate any emotional or physical violence or any other humiliating or degrading treatment;
   
   
4. To take measures to eliminate the use of corporal punishment in schools and to take urgent measures to protect students from violence of any kind, injury or abuse, including sexual abuse, intimidation or maltreatment in schools, to establish complaint mechanisms that are age-appropriate and accessible to children and to undertake thorough and prompt investigations of all acts of violence and discrimination;
   
   
5. To take measures to change attitudes that condone or normalize any form of violence against children, including cruel, inhuman or degrading forms of discipline, harmful traditional practices and all forms of sexual violence.....

In paragraph 30 the Council calls upon states to ensure “that no child in detention is sentenced or subject to forced labour or corporal punishment”.

Download the full text of the resolution (A/HRC/7/L.34, draft version, 26 March 2008) – Word document.

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