Date: August 2009

Spanish and French Legal Reform Handbooks

The popular Legal Reform Handbooks written by the Global Initiative in 2008 and revised in 2009 are now available in Spanish and French. They explain how legislation should be reformed in order to achieve prohibition of all corporal punishment of children, building on the interpretation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the Committee which monitors its implementation in General Comment No. 8 (2006).

The handbook provides examples of laws which give children the same protection from assault that adults enjoy, including the removal of legal defences relating to “reasonable chastisement/correction” by parents and the repeal of laws authorising corporal punishment in schools and as a sentence of the courts. It also gives guidance on non-legislative measures to support full prohibition.

The handbooks are available as pdfs here:

• Interdire les châtiments corporels à l’encontre des enfants: Guide des réformes juridiques et autres mesures
  
  
• Prohibir el castigo corporal de los niños: Guía sobre la reforma legal y otras medidas
  
  
• Prohibiting corporal punishment of children: A guide to legal reform and other measures

A limited number of hard copies is also available (email info@endcorporalpunishment.org).

Click here for online resources to support the handbook.

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