Submitted by CRIN on
[2 October 2014] -
Cabo Verde has joined the list of states enacting legislation which prohibits all corporal punishment of children including within the family.
The Law on Children and Adolescents 2013, in force 2014, states in article 31 (unofficial translation):
“(1) The family must provide a loving and safe environment that allows the full development of children and adolescents and protects them from any actions affecting their personal integrity.
(2) In exercising the right to correction parents must always keep in mind the rights of children and adolescents to an upbringing free from violence, corporal punishment, psychological harm and any other measures affecting their dignity, which are all inadmissible.”
Corporal punishment is prohibited in all public and private institutions under the Civil Code, but prior to this reform it was lawful in the home and in non-institutional forms of care. The achievement of prohibition in the home brings the total number of states worldwide to fully protect children in law from all corporal punishment to 40. Cabo Verde is the sixth African state to achieve law reform.
For further information, see the following web pages of the organisation, Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children:
- states prohibiting page, and
-
the detailed country report on Cabo Verde
Further information
- 'CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: Exercise should never be used as punishment' (18 August 2014)
- 'BOLIVIA: State bans all corporal punishment of children' (17 July 2014)