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xEight countries pledge to ban corporal punishment to protect children against violence
Date: 19th November 2024
Category:
Violence against children
Panama, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, Burundi, Sri Lanka, and Czechia and the Gambia have all announced they will fully ban corporal punishment, while Nigeria has committed to stopping it in schools.
Corporal punishment refers to acts intended to cause pain or discomfort. It is the most common form of violence against children. The pledges were made at the first United Nations global conference on violence against children held on the 7th and 8th of November 2024 in Bogotá, Colombia.
Currently only 67 of the 193 UN member countries fully prohibit corporal punishment. Sweden was the first country to ban it in 1979. In the UK, Scotland and Wales have banned corporal punishment, but England and Northern Ireland lag behind. The Department for Education within UK Government has confirmed that ministers are considering the introduction of a ban..
In Scotland, physical punishment by parents and carers was outlawed by the Children (Equal Protection) (Scotland) Act 2019, making Scotland the first part of the UK to grant children the same protection from assault as adults.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its recent recommendations, urged the UK to take swift action to explicitly ban corporal punishment in all settings, including the home, across the entire country, as well as in the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It advised repealing the “reasonable punishment” defence still permitted in England and Northern Ireland.
- Read the press release from the World Health Organisation here.
- Click here to read coverage from The Guardian.
- Find more recommendations made by the UN Committee on the rights of the child to the UK here.