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Corporal punishment for children: Ban stuck at ministries
View(s):The Justice Ministry has submitted to the Education Ministry an expert committee report on proposals to improve the protection of children.
The decision comes despite Cabinet approval given in April to draft laws and gazette them by June.
A senior Justice Ministry official said they had decided to submit the proposals to seek the views of the Education Ministry, as most of them deal with schoolchildren and teachers.
Among the proposals is a move to ban corporal punishment for children. Currently, such a ban exists based only on an Education Ministry circular.
“Due to the sensitivity of the proposals, we have decided to seek the Education Ministry’s views too,” the official said. The committee’s recommendations would make it difficult to instill discipline in schools, the official added.
The report was drafted by a committee appointed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in May last year, with the objective of improving the security of children and affording them protection in schools.
Activists backing the committee’s recommendations asked why the Justice Ministry got Cabinet approval before consulting the Education Ministry. They accused the Justice Ministry of resorting to ‘delaying tactics’.
Sri Lanka has signed all international charters on child rights, and it is mandatory that the law to abolish corporal punishment be passed, activists said.
The activists sid they would meet the relevant ministers on the proposals.
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