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Case Study: CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN BRITAIN
- In 1982 a British family who were opposed to corporal punishment,
and whose child had been suspended from school because he refused
to accept a beating from a teacher, brought a successful case
to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. As a result,
corporal punishment in state schools was abolished in 1986. The
ban was extended to private schools in 1998.
- Europe is not the only region with an international human rights
court. The Americas has one based in Costa Rica and Africa will
get one too, once enough governments ratify the protocol to establish
it.
Analysis
The European Convention on Human Rights is an international treaty
that guarantees a wide range of rights and freedoms to citizens
of 41 countries. It is backed by a court in Strasbourg, France.
Governments involved in cases are bound by the
court's rulings and may have to change their national laws and pay
compensation. As such they are conceding that individual rights
take priority over national sovereignty.
Britain was one of the last EU member states to
incorporate the Convention into its own national law. But, even
after incorporation, if someone has gone through the national judicial
process and still feels that their rights under the Convention are
being denied, they can seek effective remedy at the Court of Human
Rights in Strasbourg.
A number of children have brought cases against
the UK government for failing to protect them from violent parents
or from beatings at school. The result has been a number of changes
in British law, including the banning of corporal punishment in
all schools.
The European Court of Human Rights is not the only
regional body set up in the wake of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, but it does have the strongest powers. The Inter-American
Court of Human Rights is based in Costa Rica. Africa will get a
court when enough countries have signed the protocol to set it up.
In the meantime, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
has some powers with respect to individual complaints - but not
judicial powers - and is increasingly prone to criticise governments.
The United Nations is working to establish the
permanent International Criminal Court that was agreed by states
in Rome in 1998. It will hold accountable individuals who commit
grave human rights abuses that constitute violations of international
criminal law.
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