that the very imposition of a sentence of corporal punishment violates Article 7, whether or not the sentence is actually carried out.167 1 UN TREATY BODIES The HRC has explicitly stated that the prohibition on corporal punishment extends to schools and hospitals,168 and welcomes its prohibition in the private as well as the public sphere.169 Until recently, the Committee refrained from making explicit recommendations addressing corporal punishment by private actors, notably punishment of children by their parents, apparently considering this the domain of the CRC. However, following the launch of the World Report on Violence against Children in November 2006,170 it would seem that the HRC is taking a more expansive view, recommending that Zambia “prohibit all forms of violence against children wherever it occurs.”171 – UNCAT As recently as 1996, the CAT was still relatively cautious in its approach to corporal punishment, recommending merely that the UK reconsider corporal punishment “with a view to determining if it should be abolished in those dependencies that still retain it.”172 However, like the HRC, the CAT has more recently adopted a stricter approach, and it is now clear that the CAT considers all corporal punishment to violate the UNCAT. In 2002, the CAT recommendation to Saudi Arabia was phrased in much stronger terms; the State was to “Re-examine its imposition of corporal punishments, which are in breach of the Convention.”173 The CAT considers that States must go beyond passing legislation to prohibit corporal punishment in detention centres, hospitals, schools and other public institutions; a monitoring mechanism should also be established to ensure that October 2001, §4.6. The prohibition applies to punishments under Shariah. See HRC, Concluding Observations on Yemen, UN Doc. CCPR/CO/84/YEM, 2005, §16. 167 Higginson v Jamaica (2002), op. cit. 168 HRC, General Comment No. 20, 1992, §5. 169 See, for example, HRC, Concluding Observations on Guyana, UN Doc. CCPR/C/79/Add.121, 2000, §5, where the Committee “welcome[d] the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act in 1996 and its extension to children.” 170 The report was the result of research by the Independent Expert for the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children. See http://www.violencestudy.org/. 171 HRC, Concluding Observations on Zambia, UN Doc. CCPR/C/ZMB/CO/3, 2007, §22. The HRC recognises that full compliance with this obligation, which requires societal change, may take time, but States should nonetheless “take all necessary measures towards the eventual total abolition of corporal punishment”: HRC, Concluding Observations on Barbados, UN Doc. CCPR/C/BRB/CO/3, 2007, §12. 172 CAT, Concluding Observations on the UK, UN Doc. A/51/44, 1996, §65(i). 173 CAT, Concluding Observations on Saudi Arabia, UN Doc. CAT/C/CR/28/5, 2002, §8(b). 37