| Abstract: | A brief survey of the legal history of corporal punishment shows that there is a degree of ambivalence regarding the question of corporal punishment in South Africa. Although it appears to be recognised by the courts, if not always by the legislature, that whipping is a grave affront to human dignity and should be sparingly used, if at all, the feeling nevertheless seems to remain that the peculiar circumstances of the country warrant its continued application. Moreover, in the moderated form of juvenile whippings, it seems to be regarded as an acceptable means of keeping juveniles out of overcrowded prisons. It is in view of this ambivalence and the everpresent temptation to use corporal punishment as a means of curtailing the prison population that a glance is cast at the European attitudes towards corporal punishment. This comparison reveals that there is a chasm between the South African approach to the question of corporal punishment and the approach reflected in the European Convention on Human Rights. Notes. |
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Leiden University catalogue
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