Within these countries, the process of abolishing all corporal punishment typically began by legislating against the use of corporal punishment in schools. This was followed by the removal of the parental defense of “lawful correction” or “reasonable chastisement” from relevant criminal codes and finally the introduction of explicit bans on the use of corporal punishment in relevant civil codes. A number of other countries have partially abolished the use of corporal punishment in one or more settings and have expressed a commitment to enacting full prohibition (see Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children 2008 for an overview).
Twenty-three countries have prohibited corporal punishment in all settings in legislation. Two other countries have prohibited corporal punishment by Supreme Court rulings.