Letters | Time for Hong Kong to ban corporal punishment at home

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The United Nations is calling for urgent action to end corporal punishment in all settings of children’s lives by 2030. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 11:30am, 30 Apr 2023

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Today is International SpankOut Day, a day on which every government should review and reveal its report card on banning corporal punishment to protect children.

Hong Kong’s report card on the matter is revealed to the public every couple of years on the End Corporal Punishment website. The report on corporal punishment of children in Hong Kong was last updated in March 2020. The website has a map showing the world’s progress on the issue, and our city is marked lake blue, for “government committed to full prohibition”.

However, Hong Kong’s laws still allow corporal punishment at home, which sadly often escalates into child abuse. The truth is that we are not doing enough to end this barbaric practice.

There are 65 states that have fully prohibited corporal punishment. The United Nations is calling for urgent action to end corporal punishment in all settings of children’s lives by 2030 in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 16.2. Japan and South Korea banned all forms of corporal punishment in 2020 and 2021, respectively. This should spur the Hong Kong government to consider immediate law reform to keep pace with neighbouring advanced economies.

Hong Kong has already shown we can reject physical abuse of children, prohibiting corporal punishment in the penal system in 1990, at schools in 1991 and in child care centres in 2000. However, corporal punishment is still lawful in the home, allowing parents to hit their children without fear or condemnation of the law.