Lawfulness of corporal punishment

Home

Corporal punishment is lawful in the home.

The Children and Young Persons (Administration of Justice) Act punishes “any person who has attained the age of eighteen years and has the custody, charge or care of any child or young person under that age [who] wilfully assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons or exposes him, or causes or permits him to be assaulted, ill-treated, neglected, abandoned or exposed, in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health (including injury to or loss of sight, or hearing, or limb, or organ of the body, and any mental derangement)” (section 17).

A Child Protection Act was passed by Parliament in 2007 which repeals the Children and Young Persons Act, but we have no further details.

Schools

Corporal punishment is lawful in schools, which are governed by the Education Act (1962, amended 2001).

Penal system

Corporal punishment is lawful as a sentence for crime. Under section 4(4) of the Criminal Law (Measures) Act (1991), which reintroduced judicial corporal punishment following its prohibition in 1984, a child (by definition aged below 14 years) or young person (aged 14 to 17 years) may be sentenced to be whipped with a light cane (but not flogged). The Penal Code states that females may not be given corporal punishment (section 118) and provides for the whipping of boys under 18 years. The Constitution (1973) states in article 17 that “no person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” but also: “(2) Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of this Article to the extent that the law in question authorizes the infliction of any description of punishment that was lawful in the Bahamas Islands immediately before 10^th July 1973.” This provision was the subject of debate in Pinder v The Queen (Privy Council Appeal No.40 of 2001), a judgement delivered in 2002 in which the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London decided (by 3 votes to 2) that a man’s 1997 sentence of flogging was not unconstitutional, based on the provision in article 17(2) quoted above and article 30 which states: “... nothing contained in or done under the authority of any written law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of any provisions of Articles16 to 27 (inclusive) of this Constitution to the extent that the law in question - ... (b) repeals and re-enacts an existing law without alteration....”. The Grand Bahama Human Rights Association has called for abolition of judicial corporal punishment (reported in cnews, 18 June 2007). In June/July 2007, the Court of Appeal was due to rule on a case concerning the legality of judicial corporal punishment (reported in The Nassau Guardian, Jun/Jul 2007).

There is no explicit prohibition of corporal punishment as a disciplinary measure in penal institutions. The Children and Young Persons (Administration of Justice) Act (see above) applies.

Alternative care

There is no explicit prohibition of corporal punishment in alternative care settings. The Early Childhood Care Act (2004) provides for the regulation and management of day-care centres and pre-schools but does not prohibit corporal punishment in those settings. The provisions against abuse and neglect in the Children and Young Persons (Administration of Justice) Act, and presumably the new Child Protection Act (see above) apply.

Workplace

No information.

Prevalence research

None identified.

Recommendations by human rights treaty bodies

Committee on the Rights of the Child

"The Committee expresses its concern at the fact that corporal punishment is still widely practised in the family, in schools, and in institutions, and that domestic legislation does not explicitly prohibit its use.

“The Committee recommends that the State party:

1. expressly prohibit corporal punishment by law in the family, schools and other institutions; and
2. conduct awareness-raising campaigns to ensure that alternative forms of discipline are administrated in a manner consistent with the child’s human dignity and in conformity with the Convention, especially article 28, paragraph 2.

(31 March 2005, CRC/C/15/Add.253, Concluding observations on initial report, paras.35 and 36)