NEW YORK, October 16, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has released a document containing some of its most explicit statements mandating the elimination of spanking by parents in the home. Published Oct. 12, the committee’s final conclusions and recommendations on the compliance reports of Mauritania, Kenya, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Gambia, Paraguay, Cameroon and Cape Verde, call for the elimination of the practice.
In reference to Portugal, a UN report quotes the committee as recommending the state “adopt legislation prohibiting corporal punishment in the family and in any other contexts not covered by the existing legislation and that it develop mechanisms to end the practice of corporal punishment.” About Mauritania “the Committee was concerned that corporal punishment of children was widely practised in the family.” In Kenya “it was deeply concerned that that form of punishment continued to be practised in families” and recommended that the state take legislative measures to “monitor the ban of corporal punishment in all places.”
The committee was similarly alarmed about spanking in Gambia, Paraguay, and Cape Verde.
See the full UN report at: https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/HR4570.doc.htm