Summary of law reform necessary to achieve full prohibition

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

Parents have a right to inflict “reasonable chastisement” on their children under English common law. This defence should be explicitly repealed and explicit prohibition enacted of all corporal punishment in all settings, including the family home and all settings where adults have authority over children.

All authorisations for the use of corporal punishment in schools and the penal system, including the Education Act, the Corporal Punishment Act and the Magistrate’s Code of Procedure, should be repealed and replaced with explicit prohibition of corporal punishment in all schools, public and private, as a sentence of the courts, and as a disciplinary measure in all institutions accommodating children in conflict with the law. Explicit prohibition should also be enacted in legislation applicable to all alternative care settings, including public and private day care, residential institutions, foster care, etc.

Current legality of corporal punishment

Home

Corporal punishment is lawful in the home. Parents have a right to inflict “reasonable chastisement” on their children under English common law. Provisions against violence and abuse under the Probation and Child Welfare Board Act (1994), the Juvenile Act and the Offences Against the Person Act (1861) are not interpreted as prohibiting corporal punishment in childrearing.

As part of an initiative to reform child laws in the region, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) circulated a number of draft laws for consideration by member states, including St Kitts and Nevis. The draft Children (Care and Adoption) Bill (2007), under consideration by the attorney-general, would protect children from “abuse” but not prohibit corporal punishment. It would define parental responsibility with reference to the duties, authority, rights and obligations “which by any law in force in [Saint Christopher and Nevis], the parent of a child has in relation to that child” (article 2).

Schools

Corporal punishment is lawful in schools under the Education Act (2005), the Corporal Punishment Act (1967) and the common law disciplinary power of teachers.

Penal system

Corporal punishment is lawful as a sentence for crime. The Magistrate’s Code of Procedure (1961) allows a magistrate to order the private whipping of a child (under 14) or young person (under 16) by a policeman, in the presence of certain officials and the child’s parent or guardian (article 100). As enacted in England, the Offences Against the Person Act provides for whipping as a punishment for males under the age of sixteen (articles 15, 28, 30, 32 and 64). The Corporal Punishment Act (1967) and the Juvenile Act also apply, but we have no details of provisions. Corporal punishment may be carried out only after medical examination and under the supervision of a prison official. A Child Justice Bill, drafted in 2007 by the OECS, has been sent to the Attorney-General. It does not include corporal punishment among permitted sentences, though it does not explicitly prohibit it.

There is no prohibition of corporal punishment as a disciplinary measure in penal institutions, but we have no details of applicable law. The draft Child Justice Bill does not prohibit corporal punishment in institutions accommodating children in conflict with the law.

Alternative care

Corporal punishment is lawful in alternative care settings under the common law right to inflict “reasonable chastisement”. It would not be explicitly prohibited by the OECS draft Children (Care and Adoption) Bill, which states that a person authorised to provide care for a child shall “correct and manage the behaviour of the child” (article 29(c)) and authorises the Minister to make regulations for “the management and discipline of an approved child care service” (article 140(2)(m)).

Prevalence research

None identified in the last ten years.

Recommendations by human rights treaty bodies

Committee on the Rights of the Child

“The Committee remains gravely concerned that corporal punishment is still widely practised within the State party and that domestic legislation does not prohibit its use. In this regard, the Committee recommends that the State party take all appropriate measures, including of a legislative nature, to prohibit corporal punishment within school, the family, the juvenile justice and alternative care systems and generally within the society. It further suggests that awareness-raising campaigns be conducted to ensure that alternative forms of discipline are administered in a manner consistent with the child’s human dignity and in conformity with the Convention, especially article 28.2.

“While the Committee notes the establishment of a national committee to regulate the use of corporal punishment within the juvenile justice system, it remains gravely concerned that the Corporal Punishment Act (1967) continues to allow the corporal punishment of a male juvenile convicted of an offence and to empower the magistrate’s court to order a juvenile convicted of an offence to be “whipped”. The Committee recommends that the State party take all necessary measures to prohibit the use of corporal punishment within the juvenile justice system, including the repeal of the Corporal Punishment Act (1967).”
(24 August 1999, CRC/C/15/Add.104, Concluding observations on initial report, paras.20 and 32)

Universal Periodic Review

St Kitts and Nevis was examined in the first cycle of the Universal Periodic Review in 2011. The Government stated that discipline is important in society and corporal punishment is regulated under the Education Act to ensure it does not cross the line into abuse (A/HRC/17/12, Report of the Working Group, para. 13), but the recommendation to prohibit it was neither accepted nor rejected. Examination in the second cycle is scheduled for 2015.