UNITED NATIONS, Jan 26 (LifeSiteNews) – This week, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child took up the compliance reports of Grenada and South Africa on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The committee urged the countries to ban spanking as a form of discipline, even in the home by parents.
A UN report indicates that the delegation from Grenada apologetically explained the country’s retention of spanking. “The delegation stressed again that application of corporal punishment was not the Government’s policy, and that in schools, such practice was regulated. However, due to tradition, there had been resistance by their society to eliminate corporal punishment and it was still used as a means to discipline children.” The Committee “urged the Grenadian Government to change the public attitude so that the population understood that a child was a subject of rights and a partner in the society. The change of attitude should also stress the respect of the human dignity of children.”
The report on South Africa’s appearance before the Committee indicated that the country was questioned on the “prohibition of corporal punishment in the family.”
See the UN reports on Grenada and South Africa here and here.