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 INDIA: Judicial CP [HISTORY]
Official judicial CP ordered by the courts in India was by caning; it is believed to have been abolished shortly after independence from Britain in 1947. However, this did not affect traditional village justice systems, under which CP still remains lawful, according to GITEACPOC .
In 1934, according to Benson (1937), there were 6,709 canings ordered by the courts.
Males under 45 could be given up to 30 strokes with a light rattan at least half an inch in diameter for a number of serious offences, with or without a term of imprisonment. Boys under 16 could be caned for any offence, with a maximum of 15 strokes, in lieu of imprisonment.
Some confusion may be caused by references in present-day Indian news reports to "caning" by riot police in the streets. This does not refer to JCP. The cane meant is a "lathi", a very long thin stick originally designed for use in martial arts but here deployed to disperse a crowd during disturbances. Police use it to lash out at the unruly mob, not to inflict a formal punishment on individuals.
However, unofficial, extrajudicial whippings by local officials are evidently not unknown, as shown in this Jan 2007 video clip.
See also this Dec 2008 report that 15 senior schoolboys in Manipur were publicly caned for beating up their school bus driver. One might have expected such a caning to be carried out by the school itself, making it school CP rather than JCP, but this punishment is described as having been administered by members of KYKL-UNLF, a rebel military force in the state.
DOCUMENTS:
Regulations by State under the Penal Code [HISTORY]
Mode of infliction of JCP in different Indian states in the late 19th century. In most states mentioned, caning was applied to the offender's buttocks, but in Bombay this applied only to those under 16; adult miscreants in Bombay were whipped across the bare shoulders.
INDIA: Prison CP
DOCUMENTS:
Prisons Act 1894, Chapter IX
Rules for prison discipline whipping under British rule (max. 30 strokes). This was to be inflicted on the buttocks, presumably bare, except for boys under 16, who were to be punished "in the way of school discipline", which possibly means over the seat of the trousers. The rules are unusual in specifying, for adult prisoners, not a maximum size for the rattan to be used, but a minimum of half an inch in diameter.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Corporal Punishment in India's Jails
Report (May 2006) from the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre makes the surprising claim that the whipping provisions of the 1894 Prisons Act (see above) are still in force and "actively used", especially in Jammu and Kashmir, despite a recommendation of abolition by an official committee in the 1980s. There is no mention of statistics or individual cases.
INDIA: School CP
Corporal punishment is gradually being abolished (in theory) on a state-by-state basis. According to press reports, it was banned in Delhi in 2000, Andhra Pradesh in 2002, and Orissa and West Bengal in 2004. GITEACPOC maintains that since 2010 it has been outlawed by Federal law throughout India, except in Jammu and Kashmir.
There is anecdotal evidence that these theoretical state bans are not being enforced. For instance, this Feb 2007 news item reports that shops selling punishment canes are still doing good business with schools even within the city of Hyderabad (in Andhra Pradesh), never mind in the rural areas.
In the West Bengal case, it is reported that the state government proposes to outlaw CP by legislation, the 2004 ban being merely a government directive. It it is not clear why this would be necessary if CP is already against the federal law.
It should be noted that the phrase "corporal punishment" is being used particularly loosely in the Indian subcontinent. The "horror stories" about so-called CP that are routinely quoted in support of these various bans, involving pupils being injured by untrained angry teachers who lash out violently on the spur of the moment, have nothing to do with proper formal corporal punishment.
DOCUMENTS:
Delhi School Education Rules, 1973 [HISTORY]
Rules for caning in schools in the Delhi area of India: if a cane was used, it was supposed to be applied to the palm of the hand, max. 10 strokes.
 External links for India/Schools
 INDONESIA: Judicial CP
Official judicial corporal punishment in Indonesia exists only in Aceh province, on Sumatra, where the local government has been allowed to introduce it as a concession to strongly conservative Islamic feeling in the area (Indonesia, pop. 220 million, is the biggest Muslim country in the world, but in most other parts of the country, people generally follow a much more moderate form of Islam).
Islamic law was introduced in Aceh in 2002, and proposals for caning errant Muslims first emerged in September of that year. The first reported canings took place in June 2005.
The punishment, which does not apply to the province's Christian minority, is administered in public (generally outside a mosque) to the clothed upper back; men and women alike may be caned, but not juveniles. Most of the reported cases have been for alcohol or gambling. The authorities maintain that the way the caning is administered is much more humane than in Singapore and Malaysia. Nevertheless, recipients have complained of severe pain and been photographed with bruises and welts.
These video clips show the caning process in action.
 IRAN: Judicial CP
Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, floggings have been commonplace in Iran.
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MAIN ARTICLE: For full details, with links to reports and pictures, see this separate page.
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 IRELAND: Judicial CP [HISTORY]
Judicial CP in Ireland was inherited from the UK (of which Ireland was a part until 1920). The newly independent country proceeded to enact fresh JCP legislation of its own (see external links below). JCP was not formally abolished until the 1997 Criminal Law Act, according to this article in the Journal of Social History (which is not primarily about JCP), but had clearly fallen into disuse long before that. The most recent example to hand is this 1943 juvenile birching case.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
District Court Rules 1942 (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Scroll down to "Form VI: Conviction of child for indictable offence" for the form of words used by the court in sentencing a juvenile male to birching.
Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Act 1923 Section 5 (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Text of legislation from around the end of the civil war that accompanied independence from the UK. Surprisingly, it provides for mandatory whipping for male persons convicted of armed robbery and arson - with a birch for offenders under 18, instrument in other cases not specified. Some of the phraseology is clearly inherited from British practice (e.g. "once privately whipped"). The following year, the identical wording reappeared in the Public Safety (Punishment of Offences) Temporary Act 1924 (Alternative link).
Dáil Éireann - Volume 4 - 12 July 1923 [HISTORY]
Verbatim account of debate in the Dáil (Parliament) on the flogging clauses in the Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Bill 1923 (see previous item).
IRELAND: Reformatory CP
Extracts from Borstal in Ireland [HISTORY]
From a 1975 book comparing the situation north and south of the post-1922 border as regards institutions for older youth offenders. In the Republic CP was officially not used, and mention is made of two 1940s newspaper stories alleging that it was.
IRELAND: School CP
Corporal punishment was widespread in Irish schools. In the Republic it was abolished by administrative regulation in 1982, though there have been occasional anecdotal suggestions that some teachers managed to ignore this for several years. In 1996 it was outlawed by legislation.
A politician's call for the return of CP in 2002, in the light of "growing lawlessness" in schools, was rejected by teachers' unions.
CP appears to have been a more rough-and-ready affair than in Britain, with either less official regulation of it or, where rules existed, a greater inclination to disregard them. The cane was widely used, but so was the strap, especially in the hands of the Roman Catholic priests who ran many of the schools. Anecdotal accounts suggest that some of the latter, especially perhaps the notorious "Christian Brothers", were prone to angry, spur-of-the-moment casual brutality rather than proper formal CP.
It was reported in 1968 that two years earlier there had been a change in government regulations so that canings could thenceforth be delivered to the student's buttocks and not only to the hands, as previously.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
The European Court of Human Rights and the Abolition of Corporal Punishment (Alternative link)
An 1999 overview from Irish Student Law Review. Considers the implications for Ireland of ECHR rulings on mostly UK cases.
Other external links for Ireland/Schools
 ISLE OF MAN: Judicial CP [HISTORY]
The Isle of Man is a Crown Dependency, with its own laws and parliament, culturally very British but not part of the UK.
Unlike the mainland, the Isle of Man did not abolish JCP in 1948. In the 1950s and 1960s the island became famous for its courts' increasing use of the birch to punish delinquent boys and young men across their bare posteriors. This was inflicted in private by the local police, either in a police station near the court or in a room in the court building, shortly after the court hearing, with the offender being held down over a table or chair. The last birching was in 1976.
In 1978 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the practice must be outlawed (see "External links" below).
DOCUMENTS:
Bill the Bircher [HISTORY]
Interview (1969) with a magistrate who had ordered some 50 birchings.
Birching ... The Facts [HISTORY]
A local legal expert speaks in 1972 about the legal and procedural aspects of the judicial birch.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
European Court of Human Rights: Case of Tyrer v. the United Kingdom [HISTORY]
Enter "Tyrer" in the "Case Title" box and you will get a long document from 1978 - the court's judgment on the punishment in 1972 of Tony Tyrer, then 15, who was sentenced to three strokes of the birch in the Isle of Man. There is a detailed account of the birching, and the document also sets out the relevant legislation - misleadingly, since it includes the absurd "over trousers" requirement only introduced much later (and never implemented). You cannot birch people over their trousers.
The description of the actual event makes clear that Tony indeed received the strokes on his bare bottom, which, we are told, was sore for a week and a half.
The court held by six votes to one that the birching was "degrading" within the meaning of the Human Rights Convention. Some will find Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice's dissenting opinion, at the end of the document, a welcome breath of common sense.
Tony Tyrer himself never wanted this legal action to go ahead, and tried to withdraw it; when he broke his long silence in a newspaper interview many years later, he said he believed the birch was a good thing!
Tyrer v UK [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
A brief legal comment on the above case.
Other external links for Isle of Man/Judicial
 JAMAICA: Judicial, prison and school CP
Judicial CP in Jamaica, by cat or by tamarind switch, was quite common as recently as the 1960s. It later fell into disuse but was revived in 1994 before being abolished in 1998.
Prison CP followed the same rules as judicial CP. It is not clear whether it is still on the statute book.
School CP with cane or strap, generally known as "flogging" or "licks", has been in widespread use in Jamaica. It is still lawful, but some think its use may have declined recently.
 JAPAN: School CP
Corporal punishment in Japanese schools has been prohibited since 1947. However, there have been reports of its illicit use, especially in private schools such as the Juku or "exam-crammers" -- evening or weekend establishments for extra tuition, which many students attend on top of their ordinary schooling. A well-known example of a Juku near Tokyo was the subject of this 1970s American magazine article, illustrated with several photographs, and this other article about the same establishment, with another photograph. Yet another picture from the same school has now come to hand.
These show students (apparently all boys) being caned across the buttocks with a bamboo martial-arts "sword" in front of their classmates while bending over a low desk. It is not known how typical this system is or was of other schools in Japan, or whether such things still go on now. Another photo from the same series, not previously on line, is given below:
In 2007 a BBC report "Japan schools to rethink beating" gave the impression that, amidst wide concern about bullying in schools, the ban on CP might be rescinded. The headline turned out to be misleading: this later news item clarified that the government's aim was to maintain a prohibition on corporal punishment as we would understand it, but to stress that such penalties as detention, and removing disruptive students from the classroom, do not constitute CP and are permissible.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
GITEACPOC states that CP was first prohibited in school in 1879, reinstated in 1885, banned again in 1890, unbanned in 1900, and theoretically abolished again in 1941. After the war, it was finally made illegal by the School Education Law of 1947. Official figures suggest that about 2% of all schools were suspected of breaking this rule between 1990 and 1995, but it is not clear what is meant by "corporal punishment" in this context. It may well be that most of these infractions would have involved angry spur-of-the-moment hitting rather than proper formal CP.
Corporal punishment in the schools and homes of Japan
This academic paper (1997) gives the history of the law relating to corporal punishment in schools. There were still 1,000 cases of illegal "corporal punishment" a year (probably general brutality rather than proper CP). The article discusses why it is so difficult to get rid of this phenomenon in practice. There are a couple of statistical charts.
 JERSEY: Judicial CP [HISTORY] 
Jersey is an island in the English Channel. Like Guernsey and the Isle of Man, it is a Crown Dependency, not part of the United Kingdom, and like them it retained birching as a judicial penalty when the UK abolished all JCP in 1948.
In practice the birch seems in modern times to have been applied only to boys and young men under 21. The birch was last used in March 1966 and formally abolished in 1969. The reason given for its falling into disuse was that it was realised that there was a right of appeal (apparently never previously invoked), which would delay the infliction, and that the essence of the punishment was its immediacy.
The procedure in Jersey differed from that in the Isle of Man in that the birching was carried out not by police but in the local prison, even if the sentence did not otherwise include imprisonment. For this purpose, the court would send the offender to prison for a notional few hours so that he could receive his punishment the same day and then be released.
For some reason, birchings in the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) never received as much press publicity on the mainland as Isle of Man cases. On average the recipients were a little older (mostly late teens) and the number of strokes higher: 12 strokes was quite a common sentence.
From the 1930s through the 1950s there were just a handful of birchings, probably averaging no more than one or two per year. See these sample cases.
An alleged eyewitness description was published in 1973.
In 2008, four decades after it was last used, the "horse" over which the recipient was held for punishment was discovered still in storage at the local prison, pictured here (with video clip).
 JORDAN: School CP
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Jordan Human Rights Practices 1993 (Alternative link)
Corporal punishment in Jordan's schools was prohibited, according to this US State Department document. The same information is repeated in subsequent years' reports up to 1998.
GITEACPOC says that school CP has been banned in Jordan by government regulation since 1981.
Other external links for Jordan/Schools
 KENYA: Judicial CP [HISTORY]
Judicial canings in Kenya were administered in prison and applied to the bare buttocks. The procedure was inherited from British rule. A Bill to abolish JCP was published in 2000, but caning sentences were still being handed down by the courts in Feb 2003. Abolition finally took effect in July 2003.
A Kenya magistrate from 1926 to 1936, Sir Bernard Shaw, has been quoted as saying that he "frequently" had to impose sentences of up to 24 strokes of the cane, and was present when they were carried out. He said the strokes left "little weals" which would have "become inconspicuous in time and probably would have eventually disappeared altogether" (Anthony Babington, The Power to Silence: A History of Punishment in Britain, Maxwell, Oxford, 1968).
According to Benson (1937), there were 450 floggings in Kenya in 1930. By 1935 this figure had fallen to 264, of which 221 were for juveniles.
Allott (1970) stated that magistrates' courts, including district magistrates, were at the time still empowered to order CP of not exceeding 24 strokes.
The use of JCP on juveniles in the pre-independence era is illustrated by this Jan 1960 case in which white schoolboys were sentenced to canings for various robberies. Courts also ordered adult offenders to be caned in this period.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1995
This, the first extant USSD report to refer to formal CP, mentions a case in which alleged robbers (in fact, political dissidents; it was widely seen as a frame-up) were sentenced to prison plus three strokes of the cane. The document also states that rapists were in a number of instances ordered several strokes of the cane in addition to jail terms. (The USSD report for 1996 adds nothing new.)
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1997
Here it is stated that men convicted of rape normally received several strokes of the cane as well as prison sentences. (The USSD reports for 1998 to 2003 inclusive merely repeat the same information. From the 2004 report onwards there is no reference to JCP.) Not mentioned is the fact that throughout this period JCP was imposed for other offences too, such as robbery. See for instance this Dec 1999 news item.
Amnesty International Report 1998 (Alternative link)
Notes that in 1997 many young men under 18 were caned by order of the courts.
KENYA: School CP
Corporal punishment in Kenyan schools was originally banned by administrative decree in 1996, but this was never enforced. It was announced in 2000 that the ban was now to be taken seriously. The legal provisions under which caning had been permitted were formally repealed in 2001.
However, this immediately proved highly controversial, with even university professors warning that it would lead to chaos in schools.
Meanwhile, reports in 2002 and in 2004 and 2007 made it clear that many schools were ignoring the new law and that CP continued to be applied widely.
Demands for the reintroduction of the cane have been persistent, and continue in 2008 and 2009 amidst claims of a widespread collapse in student discipline.
In Aug 2011, Muslim leaders added their voices to calls to bring back the cane, saying that its abolition under Western pressure had contributed to deteriorating moral standards among young people. 11% of Kenyans are Muslims.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Spare the Child: Corporal Punishment in Kenyan Schools
A long report (1999) by Human Rights Watch, claiming that the official regulations were routinely ignored and that pupils were caned for trivial reasons. There is also a brief summary of the report.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2000
Section 5 notes that corporal punishment of students, including caning, was widespread in Kenyan schools.
Other external links for Kenya/Schools
 KOREA: Judicial CP
There is no judicial CP in either part of present-day Korea. Flogging with a cane or paddle appears to have been common until 1920. This July 1912 news item describes the detailed rules laid down for this by the then Japanese occupying power. These specify that the whipping was to be applied to the unclothed "hips"; from the pictures available (see below) it is clear that this was a translator's euphemism for the buttocks.
DOCUMENTS:
Old pictures of judicial canings [HISTORY]
Six photographs from the beginning of the 20th century. The cane was applied to the bare buttocks, with the offender tied down to a specially-constructed bench, lying flat face down. At least sometimes, the penalty was evidently carried out in public, which is probably why so many photographs of it exist.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Colonial-style Democracy
Article in the Korea Times (Nov 2008) describes the situation after Korea was taken over by Japan as a colony in 1910. It says that "until 1920 Koreans could be subject to corporal punishment, a practice that had been long outlawed in Japan proper". However, this was only a continuation of what had already long applied before the Japanese arrived. It is claimed that floggings were ordered for "trifling offences" instead of imprisonment or fines.
KOREA: School CP
Present-day Korea remains divided between the affluent, highly developed, western-oriented South and the poor, communist, isolationist North.
School caning is commonplace and was until very recently fully lawful in the South, but is prohibited and allegedly unknown in the North.
70% of South Korean schools used CP, according to a survey in 2003.
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MAIN ARTICLE: For a detailed illustrated overview with links and documentation, see this separate page.
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 LITHUANIA: School CP
Lithuania used to be part of the Soviet Union, where school CP was officially outlawed; it is now a member state of the European Union.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Amnesty International Report 2002 (Alternative link)
This makes the perhaps surprising claim that in 2001 corporal punishment was widespread in schools as well as families. I wonder if this really means proper corporal punishment in the deliberate formal sense that we normally understand.
GITEACPOC states that there is supposed to be no CP in Lithuania, but that it is not explicitly prohibited in schools.
 MALAYSIA: Judicial and school CP
Caning is widespread and frequent. See this separate page.
 MALDIVES: Judicial CP
In this small state which consists of a group of atolls off India, courts are empowered to impose floggings for certain offences under Islamic (Sharia) law. In this July 2007 case, a man was sentenced to 19 lashes, in addition to banishment to one of the outer islands, for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.
Following the death of the man whose job it was to administer the punishment, there was over a year's pause, according to this June 2008 news item. A new operator began work on 15 May 2008 by publicly flogging two women and three men who had been sentenced during the hiatus. The report claims that the penalty is intended to be symbolic, causing humiliation rather than pain.
A July 2009 report stated that 150 women and 50 men were to be flogged for adultery. Most of these sentences had been handed down in 2006 but still not been carried out.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
GITEACPOC notes that JCP may be ordered for apostasy, rebellion, fornication, defamation, drinking, theft and offences relating to homicide. It adds that, if the offender is a juvenile, the lashing is postponed until he or she is 18.
US State Department Human Rights Report 1993
Convicted criminals may be flogged, but the report implies that this is not common. (The 1994 USSD report gives the same wording.)
US State Department Human Rights Report 1995 (Alternative link)
US State Department Human Rights Report 1996
US State Department Human Rights Report 1997
There were no reported floggings in 1995, 1996 or 1997.
US State Department Human Rights Report 1998
There were no public floggings in 1998 but there were two private floggings for adultery. (The 1999 and 2000 USSD reports merely repeat the same information.)
US State Department Human Rights Report 2001
Public flogging was still allowed but there were no reports of it in practice. (The 2002 USSD report repeats the same information.)
US State Department Human Rights Report 2003
Reports that public floggings under Sharia law had resumed. In October 2002, two women were given 15 lashes each for homosexual activity. In July 2003, five women got 10 lashes each on drug charges.
US State Department Human Rights Report 2004
Mentions that there were several public floggings during the year, particularly for adultery, but gives no details.
US State Department Human Rights Report 2005
This states that the punishment for homosexual behaviour is "whipping 10 to 30 times", but does not say whether the penalty was implemented, either for this or for any other offence. (The reports for 2006, 2007 and 2008 merely repeat the same information.)
US State Department Human Rights Report 2009
There were 180 public floggings in the Maldives for extramarital sex in the year under review, according to this.
 NAURU: Judicial CP
Nauru is a tiny island nation in the South Pacific. Judicial whipping was abolished in 1955.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Criminal Code Amendment Ordinance 1952
Sets out the provisions for whippings ordered by the court. These were apparently adapted from those once applicable in Queensland, Australia. There was a maximum of 24 strokes for offenders of 17 or over, but 10 strokes for ages 15/16 and only six strokes for those aged fourteen or under. Either a cane or a leather strap could be used.
 NEW ZEALAND: Domestic CP
A call for the outlawing of spanking ("smacking") in New Zealand, even by a child's own parents, was made in December 1999 by the Commissioner for Children.
This suggestion proved highly controversial, and a long period of public debate ensued. A Green MP introduced a Bill in 2006 to put such a ban into effect, making smacking a criminal offence. Although this passed into law, many New Zealanders refused to accept it, and in 2009 a citizen-initiated referendum produced an 87% majority for repealing the legislation. The government has failed to do so, however, and in Nov 2009 a 4,000-strong demonstration in Auckland, the "March for Democracy", protested against the failure of the regime to follow the overwhelming public view.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Referendum results
Official results of the referendum, showing a large majority in every district for decriminalising parental CP.
NEW ZEALAND: Judicial CP
New Zealand law permitted birching for juvenile offenders. In this 1905 case, five boys aged 14 to 16 were ordered 12 strokes each for stealing, which were administered on the day of the court hearing.
Originally however it was the cat that was used, even on boys aged only ten to twelve, according to this report of a July 1876 trial and description of the subsequent punishment.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
The Fall and Fall of Corporal Punishment [HISTORY]
According to this, judicial whipping for boys under 16 was introduced in 1867, last used in 1935, and abolished in 1941. For older males, flogging with the cat was introduced in 1893.
NEW ZEALAND: School CP
Corporal punishment was banned from all New Zealand schools in 1990. This must have represented quite an upheaval in a culture famous for being "more English than the English", in which the caning or strapping of secondary schoolboys had been routine, deeply ingrained and extremely widespread. (Girls were generally exempt.) For a glimpse into how this worked in practice at one elite boys' school in the late 1960s, see this book review.
The celebrated 1981 "caning video" case at Rongotai College shows that this culture was by no means confined to "posh" schools. See also this October 1997 news item for recollections of canings at Nelson College between 1856 and 1983.
All sources seem to concur that canings were invariably delivered to the seat of the trousers, with the student bending over, either hands on knees or, perhaps less often, touching his toes.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the strap was more favoured at primary school level, and here sometimes applied to girls as well as boys. Some secondary schools used it too, either instead of or as well as the cane.
Half the population of New Zealand would still like corporal punishment restored in schools, according to this May 2010 news report.
DOCUMENTS:
Caning in a mixed-sex city school in the 1960s [HISTORY]
Light-hearted anecdotal descriptions from the autobiography of a teacher. It is taken as read that boys might expect to be caned on a more or less daily basis, while girls were exempt.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
No corporal punishment in early childhood services or registered schools
This is the legislation outlawing corporal punishment in all New Zealand schools, part of the Education Act 1989.
Shards of teacher and curriculum development in four New Zealand secondary schools [PDF]
According to research cited in this paper (see p.80), 94% of boys' schools used CP in 1985, and 67% of mixed schools. However, its use was already decreasing: "In 1975, a mean of 30 canings per school had been administered to fourth-form boys compared with 11 in 1985".
Other external links for New Zealand/School CP
 NIGERIA: Judicial CP
This 36-state federation, a member of the Commonwealth, is Africa's biggest country, with 140 million residents. It has for all practical purposes two legal systems, one in the mainly Moslem north, the other covering the mainly Christian south.
This north-south divide dates back into history: there were two separate British colonial territories, Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria, until they were merged in 1914.
Benson and Glover (1931) state that there were 1,385 judicial CP cases in Nigeria in 1929. This figure rose to 1,722 as a court sentence in 1935, plus another 298 for prison offences, according to Benson (1937).
Allott (1970) records that, in the northern states, in addition to ordinary canings imposed by magistrates' courts, "native courts" had power under the law to order "symbolic or Haddi lashing".
Anderson (1970) noted that such punishments had to be confirmed by the Emir or district officer before being carried out. He added that it was "important [...] to distinguish the lashes imposed under the Shari'a from any form of corporal punishment permitted under the Criminal Code. The former must be inflicted with a cowhide whip held only between certain fingers of the hand, while the one who inflicts it must also hold some object under his arm throughout. It is clear, therefore, that this punishment at least in modern Nigeria is to be regarded as a disgrace [...] rather than a very severe physical ordeal".
The emergence since 1999 of explicitly Islamic regimes in many of the northern states has brought the distinction between north and south into sharper focus, following a long period of centralised military rule.
Flogging sentences by local courts under Sharia law -- often for fairly minor offences -- have become commonplace in the northern states. These are usually, or possibly always, administered in public. See this 2007 BBC report, which includes two video clips showing public whippings being ordered and inflicted in Zamfara. These particular punishments are seen to be applied to the clothed buttocks, but photographs from other states, such as in this 2002 report from Katsina, show whippings on the bare upper back.
For more serious offences, CP is combined with a prison sentence, as in this June 2008 case in which a rapist was sentenced to 10 years' jail plus 41 strokes of the cane.
In Abuja, the federal capital, there have been frequent reports of local courts sentencing boys and girls to six or seven strokes of the cane for minor offences, while adults doing the same crime were given short prison sentences, as in this Nov 2010 report.
Judicial caning also still exists, along more "British" lines, in the mainly Christian south. The Criminal Code Act 1916 still applies in these states, under which adult males may be sentenced to caning for any offence punishable by six months or more in prison. Also, in some southern states, boys aged up to 16 may be sentenced to caning by magistrates for any indictable offence. The Criminal Procedure Act 1945 (art. 386(1)) limits the number of strokes to 12.
These southern cases rarely seem to be reported, and the frequency of the use of JCP is unknown. One 2008 case was, however, reported in the (southern) Kwara State: a young man was ordered to receive 12 strokes of the cane, without imprisonment, for stealing a mobile phone, which sentence was carried out immediately at the court premises "by security agents".
Another southern (non-Islamic) case was reported in Aug 2011 when a university undergraduate was ordered six strokes of the cane, likewise for stealing a telephone. The strokes were administered immediately by police.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
GITEACPOC tries to unpick some of the complexities of the several parallel legal systems, as they apply to youngsters. In the country as a whole, under the Children and Young Persons Act, courts may order juveniles aged 7 to 17 (it is not clear whether this applies to girls as well as boys) to be whipped, and the law states that this is preferable to imprisoning them. The Criminal Code (South) provides that boys under 17 may be ordered to be caned for any offence. Under Sharia law in the North, children as young as 10 are reported to have been sentenced to JCP.
Sentencing of children in Nigeria [DOC]
This document from the Child Rights Information Network goes into even further complicated detail, particularly as to the different ages at which people are regarded as children, young people or adults in each state. There is a handy list of which states are in the North and which in the South.
2010 Legal Notice Issued in Nasarawa State
Caning in Nasarawa State may be applied only to offenders below age 18, according to this. Chief Magistrates may order up to 12 strokes, other magistrates up to 10 strokes.
US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices 1996
This is the first extant USSD report to mention formal CP in Nigeria, and states that caning was used as a punishment for "minor infractions or public disturbances".
US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices 1997
This says that caning continued as a form of punishment, in many cases not as a formal court sentence so much as by the security forces taking the law into their own hands. However, in the year under review, four men publicly received 100 strokes of the cane each as a formal court sentence for adultery. (The 1998 and 1999 USSD reports do not mention official JCP.)
US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices 2000
Some detail is given about the various provisions under which formal judicial CP may be inflicted, under the national common law (though no cases of this are cited) and the Northern Nigerian Penal Code as well as by Shari'a courts in the north. The recent extension of the latter in certain states is noted, and the question is raised whether such punishments constitute "torture or [...] inhuman or degrading treatment" as forbidden by the Constitution.
Time for justice and accountability
Amnesty International document (2000) with more detail of some Islamic floggings in Zamfara and Katsina states.
US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices 2001
Notes that, by the end of 2001, 12 northern states had adopted versions of criminal Islamic shari'a law. Cites a few cases, including one in Zamfara in which a 17-year-old girl was given 100 strokes of the cane for fornication and slander. See this Jan 2001 news report, which says that she received the strokes on her buttocks, unlike many shari'a floggings. (The USSD report for 2002 adds nothing of substance.)
Nigeria: Teenage Mother Whipped
Human Rights Watch reaction to the Islamic flogging of a girl in Zamfara (see previous item), which provoked an international outcry.
US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices 2003
The number of northern states using shari'a law remained at 12. There had been no constitutional challenge to JCP. The report noted that in some cases convicted persons were offered a choice between paying a fine and being caned. Caning sentences were usually carried out immediately. Also mentions a Zamfara case in which a woman was ordered 30 strokes plus a fine for arson, and given the option of five years' jail instead. (The USSD reports for 2004 to 2010 inclusive add nothing new.)
NIGERIA: School CP
Corporal punishment is prevalent in schools in both North and South Nigeria.
This Dec 2007 news item reported that school corporal punishment had been "reintroduced" in Osun State, although there is no indication to hand that it was ever banned.
This Feb 2011 news item claims that the use of CP is declining, and includes a photograph of a boy and a girl being whipped in the schoolyard in front of their peers.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
GITEACPOC notes that corporal punishment is lawful in schools under Article 295(4) of the Criminal Code (South).
Rights of the Child in Nigeria [PDF]
Corporal punishment is explicitly permitted in Nigerian schools, for students under 18, under Article 55 of the Penal Code (North). The government says it may be carried out only on the authority of a head teacher.
 PAKISTAN: Judicial CP
Judicial caning, sometimes carried out in public, was commonplace during the regime of General Zia (1977-1985). It is less common now, but has not been abolished altogether.
Unofficial floggings by Taliban-related Islamicists take place in areas of the North-West that are beyond the control of central government.
Quite separately, the police, particularly in Punjab, openly spank offenders on the buttocks, often with a leather paddle called a "patta".
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MAIN ARTICLE: For full details, with links to news items, pictures and various other documentation, together with video clips, see this separate page.
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PAKISTAN: School CP
Corporal punishment is lawful in schools under Article 89 of the Penal Code. Ministerial directives in the different provinces have instructed teachers not to use it, in some cases even in private schools -- see this April 2005 news item and this Sep 2005 one -- but these are clearly unenforceable in practice. Press reports have carried various "horror stories" about what they describe as "corporal punishment" and sometimes "caning", but these always turn out to relate to random brutality by out-of-control angry teachers, not proper CP.
When proper moderate formal CP occurs, from the video clips that have come to hand so far -- though we should bear in mind that the schools that these clips come from may not be representative of schools generally -- it appears to owe as much to a British tradition inherited from colonial times as to any Islamic notions. A cane is applied to male students' buttocks or in some cases to the hands; the slipper is also sometimes used.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Violence Against Children within the Family and in Schools [PDF]
This 2001 document sets out Pakistan school heads' opinions of corporal punishment (most of them thought it was necessary) and gives various other survey statistics, including the types of punishment used. One of these is called "murgha banana" or "to assume the position of a cock with his head down and buttocks up", which is a punishment in its own right but also often a prelude to being spanked. As with much material from India, Japan and some other places, the definition of "corporal punishment" here seems much too widely drawn to be useful or sensible.
 PALESTINE: Judicial and reformatory CP
According to Benson and Glover (1931), there were 20 judicial floggings in Palestine in 1929. The territory was under the British Mandate at the time.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
GITEACPOC now clarifies, in a Feb 2010 update, that JCP is still lawful, at least in theory, in Gaza under 1938 British Mandate legislation that remains unrepealed. The assumption is that in practice this is a dead letter. In the West Bank (under former Jordanian legislation) and East Jerusalem (under Israeli rule) there is no JCP.
Encyclopaedia of the Palestine Problem [HISTORY]
Summary of events in the Palestine emergency of 1946, when Zionist terrorists were attacking the British forces. One of them was sentenced to a whipping for a bank robbery and they kidnapped British soldiers and flogged them in retaliation. For more detail see these December 1946 news items.
On the Legislation Relating To Palestinian Children (Alternative link)
Big document produced by the Law Centre of Birzeit University (1996) explaining the complicated legal situation inherited from various different jurisdictions and shortly to be replaced (or so it was hoped at the time) with modern legislation by the new Palestinian Authority. See Section 6, "Children as Offenders/Juvenile Justice". Rules made under the British Mandate in 1922 and added to in 1930, not spelled out in detail here, empowered courts to order flogging for those aged under 16 for any offence. This legislation was strengthened in 1937 and 1941 with a statement that no young person should be sent to prison if he could suitably be dealt with in some other way, including corporal punishment. Under Jordanian jurisdiction these provisions were repealed for the West Bank in 1954 but apparently remain in force up to today in the Gaza Strip, at least in theory. Also still applicable in the Gaza Strip are reformatory regulations from 1932 providing for corporal punishment to be used (no details given). The Israeli authorities made various legislative changes after their invasion of 1967 but left these particular provisions unamended. However, it is not clear whether the occupying power has allowed these rules to be invoked in practice.
 PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Judicial CP
Magistrates in PNG could formerly order male juveniles to be caned in public, as in this March 1966 case. It is not known when JCP was outlawed.
In November 2010 the Madang Urban Youth Council announced that it would cane school students found roaming about when they should be in school. It is not clear what legal basis this initiative has, if any, but it evidently has the support of the police.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Prison CP
DOCUMENTS:
Prisons Ordinance, 1923-1938 [HISTORY]
Rules for whipping by cane or birch rod. Sentences had to be confirmed by the Administrator only where the offender was "a person other than a native"!
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: School CP
Corporal punishment remains lawful in PNG schools but is believed to have fallen into disuse.
DOCUMENTS:
Call for corporal punishment
Australian news item (Feb 2006) reporting that the PNG Prime Minister had called for the "reintroduction" of caning in secondary schools and for its use also in universities and technical colleges, complaining of a lack of discipline in educational institutions.
PNG minister considers corporal punishment in schools
Five years further on (Sep 2011) comes another ministerial suggestion that the cane be restored.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
GITEACPOC confirms that CP has not been outlawed in PNG, but says that the government in the 1970s asked schools not to use it.
 POLAND: School CP
It is always claimed that school CP was abolished in Poland in 1783, but since the country went out of existence as an independent political entity from 1795 to 1918, this may not mean very much.
We do not know much about what happened between 1918 and the German invasion in 1939 but some anecdotal evidence suggests that CP was not unknown in classrooms. During the communist period (1945-1989) the official propaganda line, as in all communist states, was that there was no CP.
Matters are complicated by the fact that Poland's borders have kept moving around over history. It is known that school students were caned in the area of Poland occupied by Prussia in the 19th century and up to World War I -- see these 1901 news items.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
US State Department Human Rights Report 1996
According to this US Government report, the Polish teachers' work code guarantees legal immunity from prosecution for the use of corporal punishment in classrooms, which the report clearly deems to be "abuse" (rather oddly, since it is not legally so regarded in the USA itself). The identical wording is repeated in the each year's USSD report for Poland up to 2005. It is not mentioned in the 2006 or subsequent reports.
GITEACPOC says that CP was explicitly forbidden by government regulation only as recently as 2001. They add that it is not clear, even now, whether this applies to private as well as public schools. They also cite a 2001 survey which found that 20% of adult respondents recalled experiencing "corporal punishment" (undefined) by schoolteachers, which might lead one to suspect that the proclaimed ban on CP during the communist era was possibly somewhat theoretical. On the other hand, there could easily be confusion about what is meant by "corporal punishment". No hard evidence is currently to hand one way or the other.
 QATAR: Judicial CP
Flogging remains on the statute book as an Islamic punishment in this small Gulf state. It is applied, to women as well as men, for moral offences, particularly to do with sex or alcohol. This recent court case, in which a man and a woman were ordered 100 lashes each for adultery, is probably typical. It would appear to be common for the flogging to be combined with a prison sentence.
A British man who was flogged in Qatar in 1994 (or 1993 -- accounts vary) has recently described the experience. From this description it appears that the strokes are applied indiscriminately from the shoulder blades to the calves, with clothes kept on.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
GITEACPOC quotes a law to the effect that juveniles under 16 may not be flogged in Qatar.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1995 (Alternative link)
This report says that an American received 90 lashes on 6 June 1994 for homosexual activity. He had been offered expulsion without prison or caning but opted to take the caning in order to be able to return to Qatar. According to this account, he was "bruised but in good health". It is remarkable how little publicity this got at the time, in comparison with the case of another US citizen, Michael Fay, caned in Singapore one month earlier.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1998
This mentions corporal punishment in passing but gives no details. (The 1999 and 2000 reports add no further information.)
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2001
According to this, corporal punishment is not administered in public. (The 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 reports merely repeat the same information.)
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2006
This report mentions the application of lashes (in private) for alcohol consumption, but fails to note that this punishment is also ordered for sexual offences. (The 2007 and 2008 reports add nothing of significance.)
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2009
No corporal punishment was applied during the year under review, according to this. Courts typically reduced such sentences to a fine on appeal.
QATAR: School CP
Corporal punishment in Qatar schools is prohibited by a ministerial decree of 2001, according to GITEACPOC. However, there have been reports of this rule being breached, according to this brief news item from March 2005.
 ST VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES: Judicial and school CP
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
NGO Initial Report on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines [DOC]
Submission (2002) by the local Human Rights Association to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Part IV(f) quotes the 1959 regulations, involving use of a leather strap, for CP in schools. Part VII(c) mentions the judicial caning of juvenile offenders - up to 12 strokes on the bare buttocks, usually given by a policeman in a police station. The document is also available in PDF format.
GITEACPOC confirms that the above provisions were still in force in 2011.
Other external links for St Vincent/School CP
 SAUDI ARABIA: Judicial CP
Local courts routinely order floggings, often of hundreds of lashes -- or even thousands, inflicted in instalments. Women as well as men may be flogged.
SAUDI ARABIA: Reformatory CP
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Adults Before Their Time
According to this document (2008) from Human Rights Watch, only boys over 15 are flogged at the Riyadh Social Observation Home. The floggings are administered in front of other detainees. "Every Tuesday a staff member prepares 15 or 16 files for flogging." There are no details of what exactly is meant here by "flogging".
 SIERRA LEONE: Judicial CP
The Corporal Punishment Act 1960 allows up to 36 lashes (up to 12 lashes for boys under 17). No details are to hand of the instrument to be used or the modus operandi.
It was reported in 2008 that a magistrates' court had ordered a 19-year-old thief to receive 24 lashes for petty theft in lieu of imprisonment. The punishment was administered "in public view inside the courtroom".
According to Benson (1937), there had been 57 instances of judicial CP in Sierra Leone in 1930.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Juvenile Justice in Sierra Leone
Gives details of the canings or birchings that magistrates' courts can impose on juveniles. However, the document says this is very rare. More often, cases are dealt with by the village chief under customary law, often involving flogging.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2004
In its first extant mention of JCP in Sierra Leone, the USSD says that in 2004 there were reports of Councils of Chiefs administering floggings as part of a traditional code of justice outwith the official penal system.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2005
A magistrate sentenced an 11-year-old boy to 6 lashes for stealing a phone, according to this. (The report for 2006 adds nothing new.)
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2007
Local chiefs continued to administer harsh punishments. Meanwhile, the official Corporal Punishment Act was still in force, though no actual cases are cited. (The report for 2008 merely repeats the same information.)
SIERRA LEONE: School CP
Corporal punishment is lawful in Sierra Leone schools under article 3 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act and article 33(2) of the Child Rights Act, according to GITEACPOC. Various recommendations to abolish it have not been followed up.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the caning of students' buttocks is widespread. This video clip shows the caning of a girl and two boys in front of their schoolmates.
 SINGAPORE: Armed Forces CP
Under Singapore law, male members of the armed services may be caned for a variety of offences. The punishment is imposed by a military court, with a maximum of 24 strokes at any one court martial. For offences by servicemen while detained in a disciplinary barracks, caning may be ordered by the officer in charge, without a court martial, but the sentence has to be approved by the Armed Forces Council.
Caning under this regime is less severe than JCP under the Criminal Procedure Code. It was originally aimed primarily at recalcitrant teenage conscripts. Military service is compulsory for all Singaporean males.
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MAIN ARTICLE: For full details of military CP in Singapore, with illustration and links to documents and news reports, see this separate page.
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SINGAPORE: Judicial CP
 Since independence from Britain in 1959, this island city-state in south-east Asia has developed into an high-tech, first-world country. Its 5 million residents enjoy a standard of living on a par with that of Western Europe or North America. They regularly vote in free elections for a paternalistic and rather authoritarian government with strict laws, harsh punishments, restricted freedom of speech, and no free press. It is one of the world's least corrupt regimes. Singapore is easily the cleanest and most efficient country in Asia. Crime rates are low.
With thousands of court-ordered canings administered each year, Singapore can reasonably claim to be the JCP capital of the world -- especially pro rata to its population. Only males under 50 may be so punished. Contrary to myth, all these sentences are carried out privately in prison; there have never been public canings here. The punishment is applied with a long, heavy, soaked rattan (not bamboo) across the offender's bare bottom. The number of strokes ordered varies from three to 24, depending on the offence.
Corporal punishment is always combined with a prison sentence; the prisoner generally receives his caning fairly early on in his prison term, once any appeal has been exhausted. Most of the country's several prisons are said to hold a mass caning session once or twice a week, with typically dozens of prisoners waiting in line outside the room for their turn to be punished.
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MAIN ARTICLE: See comprehensive feature article Judicial caning in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei (illustrated) for full details of history and modus operandi, first-person and eyewitness accounts, links to press articles, and an overview of the legislative situation.
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See also a table of offences for which caning may be ordered by the courts in Singapore.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Mandatory Caning of Foreign Workers Who Overstay
Question and answer in Parliament (May 2008). The minister says that mandatory caning (minimum 3 strokes) of those who overstay in Singapore by more than 90 days is necessary to deter immigration offenders.
CRC Initial Report [PDF]
Singapore is signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. As such, it is obliged to report on its progress in implementing the Convention's provisions, and this is its initial report (2000). The document makes no apology for the fact that the High Court may sentence boys under 16 to "caning with a light rattan" for serious offences (and also the fact that "corporal punishment is meted out judiciously to errant male pupils" at school). Clearly Singapore has no intention of changing its tried and tested procedures at the whim of an unelected and unaccountable UN Committee.
Of particular interest is that at paragraph 9.2 the document quotes some rare statistics: 20 juveniles were judicially caned in Singapore in 1998, and 39 in the period Jan to Sep 1999. This latter amounts to about one per week, which is a great deal more than I had assumed from the infrequent reports of such sentences in the press, such as this Oct 1999 report of a case in which a boy of 14 was awarded 10 strokes of the light cane (plus five years' jail) for a violent robbery that caused the death of the victim.
2nd and 3rd Periodic Report [DOC]
This is a follow-up to the above. It continues to defend robustly Singapore's use of carefully regulated formal caning for boys in schools, reformatories and the judicial process. The document reveals a decline in juvenile judicial caning: 76 such punishments were carried out between 2003 and June 2007. This averages out to roughly one juvenile caning every three weeks.
Prisoners inflicted with more than 24 strokes of the cane
Verbatim account of a debate (15 Feb 2008) in the Singapore Parliament about cases in which prisoners have received more than 24 strokes at a time, in apparent breach of the rules. A more succinct version of the Minister's reply can be found in this news item.
Consultation on the Criminal Procedure Code Bill [PDF]
Government consultation paper (Dec 2008). See p12/13 for changes to caning provisions, mainly to do with the cap of 24 strokes per occasion.
Second Reading Speech on Moneylenders (Amendments) Bill 2005
A government minister explains to Parliament why the penalties were being increased for harassment by loan sharks, including caning where damage to property or hurt to persons is caused. The first such punishments were handed down in March 2006.
Things Singaporeans do and what they can expect to get
An unofficial list of selected court cases, with links to the relevant official court reports. A few involve caning sentences, but it's also interesting to note how many of them don't. Perhaps we ought to regard extremely long prison terms, rather than caning, as the truly distinctive characteristic of Singapore justice.
Fay v Public Prosecutor [HISTORY]
The official court record of Michael Fay's unsuccessful appeal against his caning sentence in 1994. It goes into more detail about the facts of the case than any of the news reports gave at the time.
Public Prosecutor v Roszaili Bin Safarudin
Official court record of a March 2003 case in which a 15-year-old boy was sentenced to 10 strokes of the cane for sexual offences. At the end of the document it is specified that, as the offender is a juvenile, the caning is to be done "with a light rattan".
Subordinate Courts Research Bulletin, April 1998 [PDF]
See page 9 onwards for statistics and graphs on the subject of convicted youth rioters and their sentences, including the proportion caned (12% of those aged 16 to 21) and average number of strokes.
Singapore caning
Computer-generated visualisation of the successive stages of a judicial caning. This is evidently partly based on the real photograph of a caning under way. But it is not quite accurate: there ought to be an additional, padded crossbar on the front of the A-frame, adjustable to the level of the culprit's genitalia, over which he bends. For photos of the actual equipment, see these stills from an official Singapore government film showing a dramatised reconstruction of a caning, and a video clip from the film.
Amnesty International Report 1997 (Alternative link)
Reveals that three prison officers were jailed and caned for causing the death of a prisoner. I wonder if any of them had been involved in administering canings themselves and if so what they thought about now being on the receiving end.
Amnesty International Report 1998 (Alternative link)
Caning remained mandatory for some 30 crimes in 1997. The document mentions a case (see this contemporary news report) in which a 16-year-old boy was awarded 24 strokes for trafficking in cannabis.
Amnesty International Report 1999 (Alternative link)
In 1998 Singapore's laws were beefed up, with caning introduced for a wider range of drug and immigration offences.
US State Department Human Rights Report 2001
The existence of caning is mentioned at some points in this document, but it will not tell you anything that you don't already know if you have read the feature article Judicial caning in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. Reports for other years up to and including 2005 add nothing new.
US State Department Human Rights Report 2006
For the first time since 1993, this report reveals JCP statistics: 5,984 persons were sentenced to the cane, and 95% of these sentences were carried out. It is not clear where these figures came from: I cannot find them on any official Singapore government website and I have not seen them reported in the Singapore or other press.
US State Department Human Rights Report 2007
The number of JCP sentences in Singapore increased to 6,404 in 2007, according to this. This is about 120 canings per week, and roughly double the figure for 1993. By my calculations, this appears to mean that about one-third of all police arrests (of which there were 19,371 in 2007, according to this police website) led to a caning sentence. Once again, it is stated that about 95% of these punishments were actually administered.
Other external links for Singapore/Judicial
SINGAPORE: Reformatory CP
According to informed sources, teenage residents receive formal, vigorous canings across the seat at such institutions as the Singapore Boys' Home and Boys Town, on the same basis and for the same kinds of offences as at ordinary secondary schools (see separate article), though there is some hearsay evidence that the canings tend to be more severe in terms of the number of strokes administered.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Brothers of St Gabriel
Information about Boys Town. Scroll down to "A caring disciplinarian".
Speech by Mrs Yu Foo Yee Shoon: Juvenile homes
A government minister replies (March 2006) to questions in Parliament about the rehabilitation of young offenders in juvenile homes (see paragraphs 9 to 14). Residents found to be bullying others may be punished by detention in a segregation room and, for boys, caning.
SINGAPORE: School CP 
Caning is a lawful punishment in Singapore schools, for male students only. Most secondary schools use it at least occasionally. In some schools it is quite common.
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MAIN ARTICLE: For full details, with links to reports and pictures, see this separate page.
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 SOMALIA: Judicial CP
Civil war has been going on for many years. There is no established rule of law or stable central government. Local ad hoc Islamic courts in some areas order floggings.
In 2006 the Union of Islamic Courts took control (temporarily as it turned out) of the capital, Mogadishu, and instituted a series of high-profile public floggings, as reported in these Aug 2006 illustrated news items.
Further public floggings by Islamic courts took place in Mogadishu in 2009.
Public floggings in 2008 and 2009 by the anti-government Al-Shabab group of extreme Islamicists, as seen in these video clips, were carried out in a lackadaisical and incompetent manner.
Benson (1937) recorded that there had been 96 floggings in Somaliland in 1930; the total for 1935 was not available, but it included 85 corporal punishments of juveniles.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997
Shari'a courts regularly sentenced convicted thieves to public lashings.
Amnesty International Report 1998 (Alternative link)
Civil war continued; no central government or criminal justice system was in operation. However, ad hoc Islamic courts handed out many floggings (no details given).
US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices for 1999
According to this, there were no reports of public whippings in 1998.
US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices for 2000
Cites "occasional reports" of public whippings by clan-based Shari'a courts in Mogadishu, including one of a journalist for writing an anti-Islamic article. Elsewhere in the country, chaos reigned.
US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices for 2001
Says that, unlike in the previous year, reports of public whippings were rare. (The 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 reports make no explicit mention of JCP.)
US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices for 2006
Notes that the Islamic Courts controlled the area around Mogadishu for part of 2006, and carried out public floggings under Shari'a law.
 SOUTH AFRICA: Judicial CP [HISTORY]
Judicial caning of males (informally known as "cuts") used to be common, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s when it was a mandatory penalty for certain offences.
Local courts routinely sentenced male youths under 21 to be caned for a wide range of minor crimes, and this punishment was provided by the police. Until 1977 it was applied to the unclothed posterior, max. 10 strokes, and thenceforth across the trousers seat, max. 7 strokes. Typically, the offender would be disciplined on the same day as the court hearing, all that day's recipients at a particular court being dealt with in each other's presence and then immediately released.
Caning of adult men was a significantly more severe penalty. It was usually combined with imprisonment and was administered in prison.
JCP was abolished in 1995 for juveniles and in 1997 for adults.
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MAIN ARTICLE: See comprehensive 12-part feature article Judicial corporal punishment in South Africa [HISTORY] (illustrated), with historical background, legislation, modus operandi, eyewitness accounts, first-person accounts, statistics and case law.
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DOCUMENTS:
Criminal Procedure Act - No. 51 of 1977 [HISTORY]
Former legislation relating to judicial whipping by cane.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Abolition of Corporal Punishment Act (No 33 of 1997) [PDF]
Text of the 1997 Act which removed judicial caning from the statute book.
South Africa's Nuremberg Laws [HISTORY]
Chapter 9 of a 1969 book on "The Rise of the South African Reich". Gives some detail on the Criminal Sentences Amendment Act 1952, which introduced mandatory caning for certain offences, leading to a huge increase in the amount of judicial corporal punishment awarded. For example, in the year to 30 June 1963, 17,404 offenders received 83,206 strokes.
The Liberal Cape [HISTORY]
Chapter 1 of a 1968 book on "Class and Colour in South Africa". Under Ordinance 1 of 1835, apprentices could be sentenced to a whipping of 15, 30 or 39 stripes.
The State versus Henry Williams, Jonathan Koopmann, Tommy Mampa ..... [HISTORY] [PDF] (Alternative link)
Long report of the milestone 1995 case in the South African Constitutional Court which brought to an end the long-standing practice of court-ordered canings for male teenage offenders.
Sentencing Options in South Africa, 1995 (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Paper from the University of Cape Town Institute of Criminology. At the time it was written, the Constitutional Court had recently held juvenile judicial so-called "whipping" (in fact caning) to be unconstitutional, but caning for adults was still on the statute book.
Republic of South Africa Department of Correctional Services [HISTORY]
A visitor from Ohio describes seeing the "discipline rack used for caning prisoners", now in a museum.
The Defiance Campaign Recalled [HISTORY]
In 1952 the then fairly new Afrikaner nationalist government introduced draconian measures against political protests and campaigns, including provision for greatly increased use of whipping sentences (the Criminal Law Amendment Act). This was a reaction to a campaign of defiance, celebrated in this document, by the ANC and other non-white groups excluded from power.
SOUTH AFRICA: Prison CP
DOCUMENTS:
Prisons Act No 8 of 1959 [HISTORY]
This law provided for up to 10 strokes of the cane for certain prison offences. It is no longer in force.
SOUTH AFRICA: School CP
Upper secondary school students, S. Africa |
Corporal punishment, mostly by cane, was very widespread in schools under the Afrikaner nationalist regime. This had nothing to do with apartheid: boys at white schools, whether Afrikaner or English, were just as likely to receive "cuts" or "jacks" as black and "coloured" students.
Anecdotal accounts generally recall canings delivered in the British style, across the seat of a bending boy's trousers. The use of a strap has also been mentioned as an alternative at some schools.
School CP was outlawed in 1996 in private as well as state schools. However, persistent reports of its illegal use continue to the present day.
A survey in the Western Cape published in 2009 found that 63% of citizens wanted to bring back caning in schools. Another survey, in Gauteng in 2011, found high school students overwhelmingly in favour of the return of CP.
This 1999 press article includes a photograph of what appears to be a real caning under way in an elementary school classroom.
DOCUMENTS:
Regulation 1143 under the Education and Training Act, 1979 [HISTORY]
Former rules governing CP at state schools (Afrikaans/English bilingual). It was to be awarded only to boys, and administered only to the student's buttocks, either with a cane or a leather strap (the dimensions of both of which are specified). A maximum of four strokes in any one day was laid down; however, anecdotal evidence suggests that many schools ignored these rules in practice.
External links for South Africa/Schools
SOUTH KOREA
See Korea.
 SRI LANKA: Judicial CP
Judicial corporal punishment, described in the legislation as "whipping", was outlawed in Sri Lanka in 2005. For an instance of a JCP sentence on adults, described in the report as "lashes with a rattan" (it is not clear how this differs, if at all, from ordinary caning), see this Mar 1956 news item. For a more recent case involving a 17-year-old thief, see this Sep 1999 report. It interesting to note that the youth was given his 15 cuts "in open court" by the court sergeant, evidently there and then; no implement is mentioned.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Human Rights Committee considers reports from four countries
UN press release (November 2003). Says that judicial corporal punishment was still on the Sri Lanka statute book, though not imposed for about 20 years (not true - see this Sep 1996 news item). The document adds that CP is still in use for prison disciplinary purposes.
April 1998: Children in South Asia Securing Their Rights
Amnesty International report states (towards the end of Chapter I) that courts in Sri Lanka may order whipping for male juveniles, and that this provision was in use in 1995. (In fact it was in use in 1997 -- see this July 1997 news item.)
Corporal Punishment (Repeal) Act, No. 23 of 2005
Legislation removing whipping from the statute book.
 SUDAN: Judicial CP
JCP in present-day Sudan reportedly takes the form of lashes with a leather whip. This punishment is often ordered for "Islamic" offences such as adultery and drinking alcohol, and there is conflict over whether it should also apply to non-Moslems, as in this Oct 2005 court case. Women as well as men may be flogged, as in this July 2009 report about 10 women being given lashes for wearing trousers.
It seems clear from US State Department reports (see external links below) that flogging sentences are routine in Sudan, particularly in the mainly Moslem north of the country. Only a few cases reach the attention of the western media, such as this Aug 2010 news report about 19 men flogged for wearing women's clothes, and this Dec 2010 item about a woman given 53 lashes in public for wearing trousers. The latter report includes a video clip of part of the flogging, from which it is apparent that the punishment is not administered in any systematic manner or on any particular part of the body, but consists of the brutal and random use of a whip while the recipient flails around on the ground -- a procedure so inept and cack-handed that it scarcely qualifies as proper "corporal punishment" at all.
DOCUMENTS:
Wote Timamu, Effendi [HISTORY]
Amusing eyewitness account of juvenile judicial caning in 1950s Sudan under British colonial rule.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
GITEACPOC states that judicial flogging is lawful in Sudan for any offender over 10 years of age under the 1991 Criminal Code. For certain offences (though evidently not those in the court cases mentioned below) there is a maximum of 20 lashes.
1994: Human rights violations enshrined in law (Alternative link)
Amnesty International report stating that hundreds of floggings had been imposed since the 1991 Penal Code was introduced.
Amnesty International Report 1997 (Alternative link)
Reports that numerous school and university students were whipped in Khartoum immediately after being convicted of instigating demonstrations.
Amnesty International Report 1998 (Alternative link)
Floggings were a common judicial penalty in 1997 for women as well as men, according to this report.
Situation of human rights in the Sudan
UN Commission of Human Rights document from 1998. Section VII "The Rights of Women" quotes various legislation about such seemingly piffling things as men not being allowed to enter ladies' hairdressing salons, and the punishments laid down for violating these rules, including flogging (no details given).
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1998
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1999
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2001
The 1991 Criminal Act provides for flogging (no details given). The minimum punishment for rape is 100 lashes. The 1999 report mentions a case in which 25 students from Ahlia University were sentenced to be flogged for disturbances and obscene acts. (The report for 2000 adds nothing fresh.) The 2001 report mentions the case in which 53 Christian demonstrators were flogged, reported in slightly more detail in this April 2001 news item.
Church shootings and arrests must be investigated (Alternative link)
April 2001 Amnesty International document on the flogging of over 50 Christians arrested during a disturbance in a church.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2002
According to this, the Sudanese government exempted the 10 (largely non-Moslem) southern states from applying the "physical punishment" parts of Sharia law if they do not wish to. Despite this, there were apparently reports of lashings in at least some of those states, as well as in the Moslem majority ones, in the year under review. The report also mentions a sentence of stoning on a woman for adultery that was reduced on appeal to a flogging of 75 lashes. In another case, 17 women received 100 lashes each, also for adultery.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2003
Mentions a case in which a girl of 13 was sentenced to 30 lashes for not wearing socks. The sentence was carried out the same day.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2004
This report says that there were flogging sentences in the year under review, but few of them were carried out. However, one Christian woman was lashed for not wearing a headscarf. A 16-year-old girl sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery in 2003 had her sentence suspended.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2005
Following riots in Khartoum, hundreds of persons, primarily in the south, were flogged, according to this. The report also states that there were no reports of physical punishment of non-Moslems in the north, possibly implying that there were cases in which Moslems were flogged.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2006
According to this report, courts in the mainly Moslem north routinely imposed floggings, especially for the production of alcohol. Some judges in the mainly Christian south also still reportedly observed Sharia law, possibly including flogging. Also, a policeman was sentenced to 100 lashes and 3 years' jail for raping a child. On the other hand, a woman received 30 lashes for defamation after complaining of police abuse. (The 2007 report adds nothing fresh.)
 SWAZILAND: Judicial CP
Courts in Swaziland may order male juveniles under 18 to be caned (Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act 1938, amended 2005). As far as can be ascertained, this punishment may be awarded for any offence, generally in lieu of imprisonment. It is delivered to the boy's buttocks in private with a light cane, after a medical examination by a doctor. The parent or guardian may be present if desired. It is not clear whether or not the offender gets to keep his pants on.
Typical would appear to be these July 1999 cases (four strokes each for theft).
Less common was this February 2005 case in which a 16-year-old was ordered six strokes for stabbing a bus conductor, who later died. This seems a very lenient penalty for manslaughter, and the press report notes that the boy was lucky not to be jailed.
One case which attracted international attention was that of three baboons who conducted a year-long reign of terror against women. Suspicions were aroused when it was observed that the baboons were speaking English. When caught, they turned out to be teenage boys in baboon suits. As noted in this July 2001 news report, two of them received caning sentences -- a singularly appropriate outcome, one might think, given that baboons are famous for their bright red rear ends.
An apparent oddity is this Jan 2000 case, in which a 20-year-old youth was sentenced to six strokes of the cane for assaulting his mother, presumably under some legislation other than the juvenile provisions mentioned above.
Allott (1970) records that 1st- and 2nd-class subordinate courts were empowered to order a maximum of 8 strokes of the cane.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
GITEACPOC cites some statistics: 388 boys were judicially caned in 2003, 233 in 2004, and 235 in 2005. They also claim that a High Court decision has placed a moratorium on JCP and the courts are no longer applying it. (But see next item.)
Amnesty International Report 2007
However, Amnesty says in this report on Swaziland covering 2006, "the courts continued to impose corporal punishment on under-18-year-old boys".
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1993 (Alternative link)
Claims that in 1993 the use of juvenile judicial caning had declined compared with earlier years. (The 1994 and 1995 USSD reports make no mention of JCP.)
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1996
Mentions, but gives no details of, a May 1996 case in which two 10-year-olds were caned for housebreaking.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 1997
Mentions that "children" (in fact boys up to 18) convicted of crimes are sometimes caned as a punishment. The reports for subsequent years up to and including 2004 merely repeat this information.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2005
Cites a case in June 2005 where a 14-year-old boy was sentenced to four strokes of the cane for shoplifting. (The 2006 USSD report for Swaziland does not mention JCP.)
SWAZILAND: School CP
Corporal punishment is lawful in Swaziland schools. The Education Act 1982, read together with the Education Rules 1977, lays down that a cane of max. half an inch thick and 2ft 6in long must be used, to be applied strictly to the buttocks only, max. four strokes for students under 16 and six strokes for those over 16: see this Sep 2005 news item, which, however, also suggests that in practice the rules are not always properly enforced, a claim borne out by this Oct 2005 news report about senior students caned on their hands and not on their buttocks. Another rule is that only female teachers are supposed to cane girls.
There has been some pressure to abolish the cane, based partly on a disinformation campaign seeking to convey the false impression that CP is contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (In fact, the words "corporal punishment" appear nowhere in the Convention.) This pressure has so far been resisted by local politicians, as reported in this June 2006 news item.
In April 2010 the rules mentioned above were reiterated by the education ministry, which added that corporal punishment must not be administered in public, and that it must be recorded in a punishment book.
 SWEDEN: Judicial and Prison CP [HISTORY]
According to Benson and Glover (1931), JCP in Sweden had by then been abolished; but prisoners could still be whipped for offences against prison discipline, to a maximum of 40 strokes, with a "stick" for adults and with a birch for juveniles. There had been three cases in the latest year for which statistics were available.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
The Early History of Data Networks: Penal Code 1809 (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Telegraphists in Sweden who neglected their watch were to be flogged.
 SWITZERLAND: School CP [HISTORY]
Education in federal, highly decentralised Switzerland is a matter for local cantons, so there is no national policy. This probably means that corporal punishment was abolished on a different date in every canton, and it is difficult to find out what those dates might be. Anecdotal hearsay has it that in some (probably rural) parts of the country there might have been CP as recently as the 1970s, but I have not yet found any corroboration for this. Further research is needed.
In Canton Berne it was decided in 1900 to restrict caning to boys and to use it only for moral offences, not for poor work, according to this news item.
EXTERNAL LINKS: (these will open in a new window)
Anti-CP agitators GITEACPOC say of the present situation in Switzerland: "In 1991, the Federal Court ruled that corporal punishment may be permissible in some cantons in certain circumstances, but a ruling in 1993 stated there can be no customary law that would allow teachers or other persons taking care of children to exercise corporal punishment against them (BGE 117 IV 18) and its lawful use is considered impossible under current (2005) legislation".
References:
-- Allott's Judicial and Legal Systems in Africa, 2nd edition, Butterworth, London, 1970
-- Anderson, J N D, Islamic Law in Africa, Frank Cass, London (2nd edition), 1970
-- Benson, George, and Glover, Edward, Corporal punishment: An indictment, Howard League for Penal Reform, London, 1931 (in particular Appendix I, "The law and practice of other countries")
-- Benson, Sir George, Flogging: The law and practice in England, Howard League for Penal Reform, London, 1937 (in particular Appendix I, "The law and practice of other countries")
-- Kalet Smith, Anna, Juvenile Court laws in foreign countries, Children's Bureau, Social Security Administration, US Federal Security Agency, Washington DC, 1949
Countries A-H are here
Countries T-Z are here
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