Uruguay becomes the first Latin American state to prohibit corporal punishment of children in the home

Following the UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence against Children, the government of Uruguay made a public commitment to implementing all its recommendations, including the prohibition of corporal punishment. On 20 November 2007, this commitment became a reality when a new law prohibiting all corporal punishment of children, including within the family home, was passed by majority vote in the House of Representatives. The bill had already been agreed unanimously by the Senate in August.

Previously, corporal punishment was lawful in the home under parents’ right to “moderately correct” their children, provided for in articles 261 and 384 of the Civil Code (1868) and article 16 of the Children and Adolescents Code (2004). The new law (“Proyecto de Ley Sustitutivo – Prohibición del castigo físico”) inserts into the Children and Adolescents Code an explicit prohibition of corporal punishment (article 12bis):

“Prohibition of physical punishment. It is prohibited for parents, guardians, and all other persons responsible for the care, treatment, education or supervision of children and adolescents, to use physical or any other kind of humiliating punishment as a form of correcting or disciplining children or adolescents....” (unofficial translation)

The law repeals articles 261 and 384 of the Civil Code, and substitutes a new article 16 in the Children and Adolescents Code:

“Correct your children or protégés without the use of physical punishment or any other kind of humiliating treatment.”

Worldwide, 20 states have now enacted legislation explicitly prohibiting all forms of corporal punishment, including by parents. At least a further 16 are publicly committed to reform. Uruguay is the first state in Latin America to enact prohibition, and globally the fourth state to enact prohibition this year, following the Netherlands, New Zealand and Portugal.

Click here for further details of the prohibition in Uruguay, and information on other states prohibiting all corporal punishment.

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