Page 98 - KDU Law Journal Volume 4 Issue 2

KDU Law Journal Volume 04 Issue II
September, 2024
Treatment or Punishment.

Applicable Domestic Law on the Corporal Punishment
Sri Lanka became a signatory of the CRC on 26th January 1990 and
ratified it on 12th July 1991. To support the CRC, the Sri Lankan
government established the Children’s Charter in 1992. Over
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time, Sri Lanka has adopted various international conventions and
revised national laws to promote children’s rights, in line with its
obligations as a CRC signatory. As a party to the CRC, Sri Lanka
acknowledges the need to restrict the prevalent use and acceptance
of CP. This shift in perspective is evident in the introduction of
new laws, amendments to existing laws, circulars issued by the
Ministry of Education, and changing opinions expressed in judicial
rulings on the use of CP.

According to the Penal Code Article 341, it has been mentioned
13
that;
“Whoever intentionally uses force to any person, without that person’s
consent,. In order to the committing of any offence or intending
illegally by the use of such force to cause, or knowing it to be likely
that by the use of such force he will illegally cause injury, fear, or
annoyance to the person to whom the force is used, is said to use “
criminal force “ to that other.”

In relation to the subject of CP, it is necessary to bring to notice
Illustration (i) in Section 341, which explains the following:

“A, a schoolmaster, in the reasonable exercise of his discretion as
master, flogs B, one of his scholars. A does not use criminal force to B,
because, although A intends to cause fear and annoyance to B, he does
not use force illegally.”

12 Children’s Charter (Sri Lanka, 1992)
13 Penal Code (Sri Lanka) [No 2 of 1883, as amended]
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