Paddling the pupils: the legality (or not) of corporal punishment in schools

By Lucy Sorensen, Charmaine N. Willis, Victor Asal, and Melissa L. Breger

International attention to the issue of children’s rights and dignity has grown in recent years, both culminating in—and then drawing momentum from— the landmark United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989. The CRC represents a changing international consensus on the rights of children, emphasizing that children, as human beings, should have a certain level of autonomy and codified legal protections (Hammarberg 1990; Melton 2005; Reynaert et al. 2009). It is formidable in its range of provisions and its specificity: it states that children have the right to have their basic needs fulfilled (addressing issues of hunger, health care, edu- cation, and play); the right to participate in decisions affecting their own well-being; and the right to be free from harm (Hammarberg 1990; Melton 2005).

2024, 23p.