THE INTERNATIONAL PROVISIONS

The relevant international provisions are as follows:-

Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) (“ICCPR”) provides that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (1950) (“ECHR”) provides that “No one shall be subjected to torture or degrading treatment or punishment”.

Article 7 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights which provides that “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law”. As such, the aforementioned provisions should be applied equally to children.

Article 37(a) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) (“CRC”) provides that “…no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

The CRC also provides in Article 19(1) that “State Parties shall take all appropriate… measures to protect the child from all forms of physical … violence, injury or abuse… while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child”.

The prohibition not to be subjected to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” has been accepted to be a Customary International Law and taken to be a peremptory norm (4) where no derogation from it shall be allowed.

It would appear from the aforementioned provisions that international human rights law do in fact prohibit CP on children.

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(4) See para 8 of General Comment No. 24: Issues relating to reservations made upon ratification or accession to the Covenant or the Optional Protocols thereto, or in relation to declarations under article 41 of the Covenant : . 04/11/94.