Corporal Punishment Report Outline - Redress

times of emergency. 86 States are also not permitted to enter reservations that
modify the scope of the prohibition. 87
The provisions governing the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment (CIDTP) do not specifically mention ‘corporal’
punishment. However, all UN treaty bodies and regional commissions and/or
courts have found that such punishment is incompatible with the prohibition
under international law. While some decisions suggest that corporal punishment
may amount to torture, 88 which may be justifiable on account of its purpose
and/or severity, others classify it as CIDTP. 89 Irrespective of its legal qualification,
it is clear that corporal punishment would amount to a violation of states parties’
obligation in respect of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment under the relevant treaties.
Corporal punishments do not constitute lawful sanctions excluded from the scope
of the prohibition of torture and CIDTP. Such an expectation has been the
subject of debates surrounding article 1 CAT, which provides that torture ‘does
not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful
sanctions’. Initially, the drafters intended to specify that such ‘sanctions’ need to
be consistent with the Standard Minimum Rules (‘SMRs’) for the Treatment of
Prisoners. 90 The SMRs stipulate, inter alia, that ‘[c]orporal punishment,
punishment by placing in a dark cell, and all cruel, inhuman or degrading
punishments shall be completely prohibited as punishments for disciplinary
offences’. 91
Some states, such as Saudi Arabia, have argued that corporal punishment
cannot be considered torture or CIDTP where it is the ‘law of the land’. 92
However, the Special Rapporteur on Torture and several leading writers in the
field have repeatedly emphasised that sanctions must be lawful under domestic
and international law. 93 As rightly noted, this means that punishments that meet
86 Human Rights Committee, General Comment 29, States of Emergency, UN Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.11, 31 August
2001.
87 Human Rights Committee, General Comment 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, UN Doc.
CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.6, 4 November 1994.
88 Doebbler v Sudan, supra note 61; Caesar v Trinidad and Tobago, Judgment of March 11, 2005, Inter-Am Ct. H.R. (Ser.
C) No. 123 (2005).
89 Tyrer v United Kingdom, 25 April 1978, European Court of Human Rights (Application no. 5856/72); Higginson v
Jamaica, Human Rights Committee, Communication No. 792/1998, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/74/D/792/1998 (2002).
90 J.H. Burgers and H. Danelius, The United Nations Convention against Torture: A Handbook on the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988,
at 121.
91 Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners, Adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the
Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social
Council by its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977, article 31.
92 Summary record of the first part (public) of the 519th meeting: Denmark, Saudi Arabia, UN Doc. CAT/C/SR.519, 17 May
2002, para.30.
93 UN General Assembly, Note by the Secretary-General, Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment, UN Doc. A/60/316, 30 August 2005, paras.26-28; N.S. Rodley and M. Pollard, The Treatment of Prisoners
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