Corporal punishment

France, 51 countries ban spanking children

France is joining the ranks of 51 other countries in an effort to stop corporal punishment of children.

That means spanking or smacking is not allowed in France, Israel, Brazil and dozens of other countries, The UN Tribune reported. 

Sweden started the push to ban physical punishment of children more than 35 years ago in 1979.

Most recently, Mongolia, Paraguay and Slovenia enacted the ban last year before France.

According to the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, corporal punishment was defined by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child as "any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light."

The committee stated that most of the time it means hitting with either a hand or an object like a stick, belt, or wooden spoon.

But it is not only hitting with a hand or an object, but also can involve boxing ears, pinching, or washing a child's mouth out with soap.

Corporal punishment

UN urges Saudi Arabia to halt flogging, amputations

United Nations torture experts called on Saudi Arabia on Friday to stop corporal punishment, including flogging and amputations, practices that the Gulf kingdom considers an integral part of its interpretation of Islamic law.

The committee that monitors the UN Convention against Torture, in its first review of Saudi Arabia since 2002, also raised concerns about the ill-treatment of Saudi bloggers, activists and human rights lawyers while in custody.

“Has Saudi Arabia taken steps to prohibit ... corporal punishments, such as flogging and amputation of limbs, which are in breach of the Convention?” panel member Felice Gaer asked Saudi officials.

The head of the Saudi delegation said work was under way on “a new penal code to combat the abuse of power, to include the definition of torture as provided under the Convention,” something the panel had requested at its last review in 2002.