Should Schools Be Allowed to Use Corporal Punishment?
Corporal punishment is the most widespread form of violence against children. It is a violation of children‘s rights to respect for human dignity and physical integrity.
Corporal punishment conveys the wrong message to children and can cause serious physical and psychological harm to a child. Corporal punishment if directed at an adult would constitute criminal assault. One of the most basic human rights principles is the right to live free from the threat of violence. Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) guarantees this right to every child and obliges States Parties to take appropriate measures to protect the child from all forms of violence.
The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, which brings together representatives from all 46 member states’ parliaments, has adopted a Recommendation calling for Europe to become a “corporal punishment-free zone”. The social and legal acceptance of corporal punishment of children must come to an end. The campaign "Raise your hand against smacking“ provides member states with awareness raising material to promote the abolition of corporal punishment and encourage positive, non-violent parenting.
In the US, 19 countries allow and 31 countries ban corporal punishment. 94% of parents with children of 3 to 4 admitted that they had spanked their children.
Internationally, 60 countries ban corporal punishment in all instances, including at home. Those countries include Japan and the Seychelles, both of which passed laws in 2020, and Sweden, which passed a ban in 1979. Most countries ban corporal punishment in some instances. According to the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, sixteen countries do not ban corporal punishment in any instances: Barbados, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Dominica, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Palestine, Tuvalu, and Tanzania.
