Prohibiting corporal punishment of children in the Caribbean ...

The box below provides examples of the clarity of prohibition of corporal punishment that has been achieved in somesettings in some states in the Caribbean. Similar clarity is needed in enacting prohibition in the home.Caribbean laws explicitly prohibiting corporal punishment in settings outside the homeBahamasResidential CareEstablishments Act 2003,art. 27BelizeEducation and TrainingAct 2010, arts. 50(2), 51(2)and 51(4)DominicaEducation (EarlyChildhood Education)Regulations 2002, art. 54HaitiLaw Against CorporalPunishment of Children2001, arts. 1 and 2(unofficial translation)JamaicaChild Care and ProtectionAct 2004, art. 62Puerto RicoOrganic Act of theDepartment of Educationof Puerto Rico 1999, art.3.09(1) No person shall inflict corporal punishment on a resident in a residential careestablishment.(2) No person shall physically restrain another person for the purposes of inflictingpunishment on that person in a residential care establishment so, however, that whererestraint is necessary for the physical protection of the person such restraint shall beadministered by a care giver in that residential care establishment.(3) No person shall deprive a resident in a residential care establishment of sleep, foodand good hygienic care.(4) No person shall subject a resident of a residential care establishment to excessivelabour.(2) School authorities shall ensure that pupils are free at school from physical, sexualor other forms of harassment, from intimidation and corporal punishment, and fromexposure to drugs, pornography and other forms of morally, mentally or physicallyharmful activities.(2) Every Managing Authority shall consult with principals, members of school staff,parents of students registered at their schools, and students registered at their schoolsand make a written statement of general principles and measures for promoting goodbehaviour and discipline for schools under its management.(4) In accordance with subsection (2) of this section, nothing in the statement ofgeneral principles and measures or measures for regulating the conduct of studentsshall authorise anything to be done in relation to a student which constitutesharassment, intimidation, the administering of corporal punishment or any otheractions harmful to a student.A permit holder operating a facility shall ensure –(c) that no child while attending the facility is subjected to emotional, physical orsexual abuse or to physical or emotional neglect or to shaking, shoving, hitting,spanking or any other form of corporal punishment.The inhuman treatment of any nature comprising corporal punishment of a child isforbidden.Inhuman treatment is defined by any action that causes a bodily or emotional shockto a child, such as hitting or pushing, or inflicting any punishment that causes damageto the child, using or without the intermediary of an object, weapon or abusivephysical force.A child in a place of safety, children’s home or child in the care of a fit person shall havethe following rights –(d) to be free from corporal punishment.Students shall observe the standards of behavior that are promulgated to ensure theorderly performance of the school. The violation of these standards will bring aboutthe imposition of sanctions that will vary from a slight admonishment, to expellingthe student. The sanction of suspension and expelling the student shall not beimposed without undergoing due process of law, except in those cases indicated inSection 3.10 of this Act. Corporal punishment is forbidden.progress report 2012 25