Summary of law reform necessary to achieve full prohibition

Prohibition is still to be achieved in the home, schools, penal institutions and alternative care settings.

We have been unable to establish whether or not legislation confirms a right of parents and others with parental authority to administer physical punishment, but legal provisions against violence are not interpreted as prohibiting all corporal punishment in childrearing. The near universal acceptance of corporal punishment in “disciplining” children necessitates a clear statement in law that all corporal punishment, however “light”, is prohibited. All legal defences should be repealed and explicit prohibition of all corporal punishment should be enacted in relation to parents and all those who care for children.

Explicit prohibition should be enacted of corporal punishment in all education settings, public and private, as a disciplinary measure in all institutions accommodating children in conflict with the law, and in all alternative care settings, including public and private day care, residential institutions, foster care, etc. All laws authorising or regulating corporal punishment of children in any of these settings should be repealed.

Current legality of corporal punishment

Home

Corporal punishment is lawful in the home. Provisions against violence and abuse in the Penal Code (1976) and the Constitution (1986) are not interpreted as prohibiting corporal punishment of children. A Children’s Bill has been under discussion and was possibly passed into law in September 2011. We have yet to see the complete text but in its 2009 draft version it did not prohibit all corporal punishment in childrearing.

Schools

Corporal punishment is lawful in schools. We have yet to ascertain if it is prohibited in the new Children’s Act, but the 2009 draft version of the Bill did not include prohibition of corporal punishment in schools.

Penal system

Corporal punishment is unlawful as a sentence for crime. Article 21(e) of the Constitution states: “No person charged, arrested, restricted, detained or otherwise held in confinement shall be subject to torture or inhuman treatment….” There is no provision for judicial corporal punishment in the Criminal Procedure Code (1969).

Corporal punishment is explicitly prohibited as a disciplinary measure in prisons in the Criminal Procedure Code. We have no information regarding its legality in other institutions accommodating children in conflict with the law. The 2009 draft version of the Children’s Bill included prohibition but we have yet to confirm that this is retained in the Act as passed.

Alternative care

Corporal punishment is lawful in alternative care settings.

Prevalence research

According to statistics from UNICEF relating to the period 2001-2007, of girls and women aged 15-49, 59% think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances. (UNICEF (2009), Progress for Children: A report card on child protection, NY: UNICEF)

Recommendations by human rights treaty bodies

Committee on the Rights of the Child

“The Committee is concerned about the incidence of abuse, including sexual and gender-based violence and neglect of children in the State party.

“The Committee recommends that the State party:

1. take all necessary measures to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment in all places, including in the family, in schools and other institutions and childcare settings….”

 (1 July 2004, CRC/C/15/Add.236, Concluding observations on initial report, paras. 42 and 43)

Universal Periodic Review

Liberia was examined in the first cycle of the Universal Periodic Review in 2010. No recommendations were made concerning corporal punishment of children. Examination in the second cycle is scheduled for 2015.