CRC/C/GC/8 page 4 launching of public information campaigns “to raise awareness and sensitize the public about the severity of human rights violations in this domain and their harmful impact on children, and to address cultural acceptance of violence against children, promoting instead ‘zero-tolerance’ of violence”.5 7. In April 2001, the Committee adopted its first general comment on “The aims of education” and reiterated that corporal punishment is incompatible with the Convention: “… Children do not lose their human rights by virtue of passing through the school gates. Thus, for example, education must be provided in a way that respects the inherent dignity of the child, enables the child to express his or her views freely in accordance with article 12, paragraph 1, and to participate in school life. Education must also be provided in a way that respects the strict limits on discipline reflected in article 28, paragraph 2, and promotes non-violence in school. The Committee has repeatedly made clear in its concluding observations that the use of corporal punishment does not respect the inherent dignity of the child nor the strict limits on school discipline …”.6 8. In recommendations adopted following the second day of general discussion, on “Violence against children within the family and in schools”, held in September 2001, the Committee called upon States to “enact or repeal, as a matter of urgency, their legislation in order to prohibit all forms of violence, however light, within the family and in schools, including as a form of discipline, as required by the provisions of the Convention ...”.7 9. Another outcome of the Committee’s 2000 and 2001 days of general discussion was a recommendation that the United Nations Secretary-General should be requested, through the General Assembly, to carry out an in-depth international study on violence against children. The United Nations General Assembly took this forward in 2001.8 Within the context of the United Nations study, carried out between 2003 and 2006, the need to prohibit all currently legalized violence against children has been highlighted, as has children’s own deep concern at the almost universal high prevalence of corporal punishment in the family and also its persisting legality in many States in schools and other institutions, and in penal systems for children in conflict with the law. III. DEFINITIONS 10. “Child” is defined as in the Convention as “every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”.9 11. The Committee defines “corporal” or “physical” punishment as any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light. Most involves hitting (“smacking”, “slapping”, “spanking”) children, with the hand or with an implement - a whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon, etc. But it can also involve, for example, kicking, shaking or throwing children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion (for example, washing children’s mouths out with soap or forcing them to swallow hot spices). In the view of the Committee, corporal punishment is invariably degrading. In addition, there are other non-physical forms of punishment that are also cruel and degrading and thus incompatible with the Convention. These include, for example, punishment which belittles, humiliates, denigrates, scapegoats, threatens, scares or ridicules the child.