DOI intervenes as Amicus Curiae in corporal punishment matter

The Dullah Omar Institute’s Children’s Rights Project has been admitted as an Amicus Curiae in a matter before the Constitutional Court concerning corporal punishment.

The matter concerns an appeal brought by Freedom of Religion South Africa (FORSA) against the Gauteng Local Division (Johannesburg) High Court order which declared that the common law defence of reasonable chastisement is unconstitutional and no longer applicable in South African law.

The submissions which the Institute seeks to raise concern the issue of protecting children from all forms of corporal and other humiliating punishment. The application concerns the protection of children’s right to freedom and security of the person, which includes the right to be free from all forms of violence, from either public or private sources, and the right to be protected from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation as set out in sections 12 (1) (c) and (28(1) (d) of the Constitution. The Institute is collaborating with the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children and the Parent Centre on this initiative.