The Future of Corporal Punishment in the Family Home and Other Similar Settings in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The central argument is that corporal punishment is irreconcilable with children's rights as enumerated in international, regional and national normative standards. The research takes a cue from tipping-point contemporary legal developments that have led to the abolition of the practice in criminal justice and education systems. Moreover, corporal punishment is a hard case since it implicates complex, convoluted, and polarised non-juridical considerations. Germane to the study is the instructive and progressive architecture of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the burgeoning constitutional provisions on children’s rights under the 2013 Zimbabwean Constitution. In the main, the authors deploy a qualitative doctrinal research methodology to conclude that the prevalence of corporal punishment in the home, care facilities and other settings is incompatible with the tenor of the Constitution and international law.