136. Specifically in relation to corporal punishment, The United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Torture has stated that Article 31 of the United Nations
Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners reflects the
international prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and that
“corporal punishment is inconsistent with the prohibition against torture, and
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment enshrined, inter alia,
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons
from Being Subjected to Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment, and the Convention against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”37 Similarly, the United Nations
Human Rights Committee has concluded that the prohibition of torture and
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment contained in Article 7
of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights should be
extended to corporal punishment, “including excessive chastisement
ordered as punishment for a crime, or as an educative or disciplinary
measure”.38
137. The Human Rights Committee has reached similar conclusions in its
decisions on individual complaints. For example, in Osbourne v. Jamaica,
the Committee found that by carrying out a sentence of whipping with a
tamarind switch, the State party had breached its obligations under the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.39 In that determination,
the Human Rights Committee stated that: “[i]rrespective of the nature of the
crime that is to be punished, however brutal it may be, it is the firm opinion
of the Committee that corporal punishment constitutes cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment or punishment contrary to Article 7 of the Covenant.”
“Questions of the Human Rights of all Persons subjected to any form of detention or imprisonment, in
particular: torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”. Report of the
Special Rapporteur, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights res.
1995/37 B, 10 January 1997, E/CN.4/1997/7.
38 UNHRC, General Comment 20, Article 7 (44th sess., 1992), Compilation of General Comments and
General Recommendations adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, U.N. Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.1 at
14 (1994), § 5; and UNHRC, General Comment 21, Article 10 (44th sess., 1992), Compilation of General
Comments and General Recommendations adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, U.N. Doc.
HRI/GEN/1/Rev.1 at 14 (1994), § 3
39 Osbourne v. Jamaica, Communication No. 759/1997, Report of the Human Rights Committee, April
13, 2000, CCPR/C/68/D/759/1997, § 9.1.
37
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