Making Sense of Children Rights: Transforming the Precedents of the European Court of Human Rights Concerning Corporal Punishment of Children

In this study, I shall attempt to examine the question of potential role of supranational human rights case law standards in transforming the precedents1 of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as Court or European Court) concerning corporal punishment of minors. Corporal punishment can be defined, for the purposes of this article, as any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain and discomfort with a view to change, control or punish the child’s behaviour for disciplinary objectives.2 The European Commission3 and Court of Human Rights have examined the issue of corporal punishment several times under Articles 3, 8 and Protocol No. 1 Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter, referred to as Convention or ECHR)4. Almost all cases were brought against the United Kingdom. This paper shall not deal with the corporal punishment in the context of Protocol No. 1 Article 2 - right to education and parental right to have children educated in conformity with their religious or philosophical convictions - since no issue arises unless the religious or philosophical convictions of parents or additional issues such as suspension of a child from school, come to the agenda