The UN committee on the rights of the child has urged the South African government to fast-track laws that would make it illegal for parents to hit their children.
The recommendation is one of many made by the committee in a report released last week.
Regarding corporal punishment, the committee recommended that laws be adopted to prohibit all forms of corporal punishment in the home, including reasonable chastisement.
It also called for a national strategy to prevent and eradicate all forms of corporal punishment and ensure that the perpetrators were dealt with.
Earlier this year, the South African Human Rights Commission called for legislation to deal with corporal punishment at home.
In an investigation report dealing with a complaint against the Western Cape’s Joshua Generation Church that referred to corporal punishment in a parenting manual, the commission said no matter how lovingly corporal punishment was administered in the home, it wasn’t invasive of a child’s bodily integrity and has the potential to violate fundamental rights.
It concluded that corporal punishment by anyone, including parents, was not in the best interests of the child.
Responding to the report, the Freedom of Religion South Africa association and Family Policy Institute supported the church’s position and said there could be dire consequences for parents if spanking was criminalised.
The Family Policy Institute said parents were the only people authorised to decide what forms of discipline were suitable for their children.
No government has the authority to usurp the legitimate authority of parents in the home. Government overreach into the family will be disastrous for society. Parents disciplining their own children cannot be equated with child abuse.
Stefanie Röhrs, senior researcher at the Children’s Institute based at the University of Cape Town, said yesterday that the Social Development Department was currently drafting a child care and protection policy.
This draft of the policy would suggest that corporal punishment be prohibited in the home.
Once this policy has been approved by cabinet, it will inform the drafting of the third Amendment Bill which will then hopefully introduce a legal ban of corporal punishment in the home.