Switzerland expressed its commitment to legally prohibit all corporal punishment of children, including in the home, by clearly accepting recommendations to do so extended during the Universal Periodic Review of Switzerland in A Civil Code Amendment Bill to achieve prohibition of corporal punishment in the home is under discussion.
Prohibition is still to be achieved in the home, alternative care settings, day care, schools and penal institutions. The near universal acceptance of a degree of violence in childrearing necessitates clarity that no kind or degree of corporal punishment is acceptable or lawful, however light and however frequently or infrequently it occurs.
Prohibition of all corporal punishment by parent and others with authority over children should be enacted in law, in addition to explicit repeal of all legal defences for the use of such punishment, including under case law. Alternative care settings β Legislation should prohibit corporal punishment in all alternative care settings foster care, institutions, places of safety, emergency care, etc. Day care β The law should clearly prohibit corporal punishment in early childhood care settings and in all day care for older children.
Schools β Legislation should prohibit corporal punishment in all education settings, public and private. Penal institutions β Prohibition should be enacted in relation to all disciplinary measures in all institutions accommodating children in conflict with the law.
In , article of the Civil Code was amended to specify violence as one of the reasons for the withdrawal of parental authority. The Penal Code punishes the causing of physical injury arts. But neither of these Codes explicitly prohibits all corporal punishment in childrearing.
