Date: December 2006

Mongolia and Taiwan prohibit school corporal punishment

In December 2006, two Asian countries joined the growing list of countries which prohibit by law all corporal punishment in schools.

On December 8, the Mongolian parliament passed a resolution to amend the Education Law. The Education Law Amendments introduce a number of major changes to the Law which strengthen children’s right to education in a safe environment, including the prohibition of all forms of abuse, violence and corporal punishment.

The reform is the result of sustained action and advocacy by civil society, including Save the Children, a “Child Rights and Education” alliance, a Parliamentary Lobby Group for Child Development and Protection, mass media campaigns, and parents, teachers and children.

Less than a week later, on 12 December, school corporal punishment was prohibited in Taiwan through amendments to the Fundamental Law of Education, passed just two weeks after the country’s launch of the UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children.

International efforts to eliminate corporal punishment were introduced in Taiwan in 2005 by the Humanistic Education Foundation (www.hef.org.tw/).  The amendment bill was first proposed to the Parliament in October 2005 after President Shui-Bian Chen’s and former premier Frank Hsieh’s declarations of their commitment to prohibiting corporal punishment by laws in response to the UN Study’s appeal in 2005 summer. The passing of the new law was widely covered by the mass media and is expected to be in effect by Christmas.

The newly amended Fundamental Law of Education is applicable to all educational institutes, including all public and private schools and kindergartens, universities, and all kinds of cram schools, protecting 5.3 million students.  To ensure implementation, the Ministry of Education should convene with the National Teachers’ Association to draft “Notes for School Discipline and Counseling” within six months after this amendment bill is passed, and should urge the local Educational Bureaus to make relevant regulations for schools.

For further information the Child Rights Information Network reports at www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=11880 (Mongolia) and www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=11871 (Taiwan).

For details of corporal punishment law in all settings, relevant research, and recommendations by human rights treaty monitoring bodies see the Global Initiative country reports on Mongolia and Taiwan.

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