General Comment 8, Protection from Corporal Punishment and Other Cruel Forms of Punishment
General Comment 8 to Articles 19, 28, and 37, Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, CRC/C/GC/8 (March 2, 2007).
"General Comments" are written by United Nations Committees that are in charge of monitoring how well a government is doing at protecting the rights described in particular treaties. General Comments give more specific detail about how the rights included in the treaties should be implemented. General comments are not legally binding documents, but they do provide moral accountability and practical guidance for governments on how to guarantee human rights.
General Comment 8, written by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, explains the government obligation to protect children from all forms of violence and particularly to prohibit and eliminate corporal punishment and other cruel and unusual forms of punishment. It asserts children’s right to respect for their human dignity and physical integrity and to equal protection under the law, as recognized by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international human rights documents. It offers background, definitions, and an explanation of how human rights standards apply to punishment of children.
“The Committee defines “corporal” or “physical” punishment as any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light…In the view of the Committee, corporal punishment is invariably degrading. In addition, there are other non-physical forms of punishment that are also cruel and degrading and thus incompatible with the Convention. These include, for example, punishment which belittles, humiliates, denigrates, scapegoats, threatens, scares or ridicules the child” (General Comment 8, para 11).
The Committee also states that “In rejecting any justification of violence and humiliation as forms of punishment for children, the Committee is not in any sense rejecting the positive concept of discipline. The healthy development of children depends on parents and other adults for necessary guidance and direction, in line with children’s evolving capacities, to assist their growth towards responsible life in society” (General Comment 8, para 13).
The General Comment also provides legislative, educational and other measures as well as implementation directives aimed at prohibiting and eliminating corporal punishment. General Comment 8 links the rejection and elimination of corporal punishment of children to the reduction and prevention of all forms of violence in societies.