Turkmenistan bans corporal punishment

Date: 13th January 2014
Category: Civil Rights and Freedoms

Turkmenistan has become the latest country to ban corporal punishment of children in all settings, including the home.

Prohibition was first enacted in 2002, but the process of verifying relevant information and obtaining official confirmation that the prohibition is comprehensive has taken many years. In a letter to the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children dated 13 January 2014, the Government provided the necessary confirmation that all corporal punishment, without exception, is unlawful under the Law on Guarantees of the Rights of the Child 2002 (art. 24) and the Family Code 2012 (arts. 85 and 89).

This brings the total number of States worldwide to have achieved prohibition in all settings to 35.

Together, along with the Children are Unbeatable! Alliance, has repeatedly called for the Scottish Government to give children equal protection from assault in law.

The Global Initiative has also published a report, in collaboration with Save the Children, on progress towards prohibition in all the 48 states and territories in Central Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific - home to around 590 million children. The report includes facts and figures on regional and global progress towards law reform, analyses of human rights treaty body recommendations and those made during the UN Universal Periodic Review for Asia/Pacific states and governments' responses to them, among other aspects.