Nov. 21, 2016 – Slovenia has become the latest country to ban corporal punishment in all settings, including in the home, after its parliament passed a law late last month amending its law on prevention of family violence.
This reform makes Slovenia the 51st state worldwide to fully prohibit all corporal punishment of children, the 30th Council of Europe member state, and the 21st European Union state to do so.
The new Slovenian legislation entered into force on Nov. 19.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child defines corporal punishment as “any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however slight,” and it calls physical punishment “invariably degrading.”
Corporal punishment in schools is banned in 128 states but only 10 percent of children worldwide are protected by laws banning corporal punishment at home and in school.
Sweden was the world’s first country to ban corporal punishment in 1979. Besides Slovenia, two other countries – Mongolia and Paraguay – enacted legislation this year banning corporal punishment in all settings.
A full list of countries that have enacted laws prohibiting violence against children in the home and school is below, courtesy of the Global Initiative to End Corporal Punishment.
2016 – Mongolia, Paraguay, Slovenia
2015 – Benin, Ireland, Peru
2014 – Andorra, Estonia, Nicaragua, San Marino, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Malta
2013 – Cabo Verde, Honduras, TFYR Macedonia
2011 – South Sudan
2010 – Albania, Congo (Republic of), Kenya, Tunisia, Poland
2008 – Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Republic of Moldova, Costa Rica
2007 – Togo, Spain, Venezuela, Uruguay, Portugal, New Zealand, Netherlands
2006 – Greece
2005 – Hungary
2004 – Romania, Ukraine
2003 – Iceland
2002 – Turkmenistan
2000 – Germany, Israel, Bulgaria
1999 – Croatia
1998 – Latvia
1997 – Denmark
1994 – Cyprus
1989 – Austria
1987 – Norway
1983 – Finland
1979 – Sweden
Related: Ireland Becomes 47th Country to Ban Corporal Punishment