Using the courts to end corporal punishment — The international score card

Résumé 0

Corporal punishment of children breaches their rights to respect for human dignity and physical integrity and to equal protection under the law. There are a number of rulings and statements by national high-level courts concerning corporal punishment, its constitutionality and/or its non-compliance with international human rights treaties. The majority of these cases clearly condemn corporal punishment in one or more settings. In many cases, the rulings have been followed by law reform to ensure that national legislation prohibits corporal punishment. This article focuses on ten national high-level courts judgments and their impacts on achieving prohibition of corporal punishment of children in one or more settings. It highlights high-level court judgments clearly condemning corporal punishment of children (Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, India, Israel, Italy and Nepal), as well as judgments, which did not clearly condemn corporal punishment -(Canada, Kenya and Tonga) but had an impact on the legality of corporal punishment in the concerned countries. An analysis of the selected cases reveals that in addition to lobbying governments to achieve law reform, civil society organisations are increasingly promoting prohibition of corporal punishment by challenging the legality of corporal punishment in court. The article also finds judgments of high-level courts can trigger changes in the general perception of the protection and promotion of human rights. In some cases, judges have ruled against the legal defence of "reasonable chastisement" and clearly condemned the use of corporal punishment by parents and caregivers in private spheres. The article concludes on the need for considering strategic litigation as an alternative way of achieving prohibition of corporal punishment.