Corporal Punishment as Violation of the Rights of the Child

Author

Dr Claire Breen

Speaker

Dr Claire Breen

Organisation

Law School, University of Waikato, Hamilton

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the defence of domestic discipline contained in s 59 of the Crimes Act 1961 conflicts is a violation of the human rights of children. There are two bases to this contention that will be outlined in this paper. First, the paper will provide an overview of those human rights treaty provisions that may be, and have been, interpreted as prohibiting corporal punishment by bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights and UN bodies such as the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Second, following upon the theme of corporal punishment as a violation of human rights, this paper will demonstrate that s 59 is discriminatory at a general level as there exists no clear justification for the difference in the level of protection against assault as between adults and children that results from the provisions of that section. It will be further argued that that the corporal punishment of children constitutes age discrimination in terms of the extent that it allows discriminatory treatment not only as between children and adults but also as between children themselves in terms of using age as a basis to determine the reasonableness of the punishment. Finally, the paper will consider New Zealand's stance on the defence of domestic discipline in terms of comments made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Consideration will also be paid to the attention (or lack of) given by the New Zealand courts of the notion of children's rights in cases where s 59 of the Crimes Act issued to allow parental rights to override those of the child.

Presentation

Paper

Biography

Dr Breen is a Senior Lecturer at the Law School of the University of Waikato. Her research interests focus upon human rights issues, at both domestic and international levels. To date, her primary research focus is in the area of children's rights and she has published extensively in that area. She teaches international human rights law, the laws of armed conflict, and contract law. She is also a Committee member of the children's rights NGO Action for Children and Youth Aotearoa.