Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his international counterparts on the use of corporal punishment for penal purposes.

Mr David Lidington

The UK Government condemns all forms of judicial corporal punishment. We believe it amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and is incompatible with international human rights law and the obligations of States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention against Torture. Where we have concerns, we raise these with the appropriate authorities. As part of the UK’s global strategy on torture prevention, Ministers and senior officials frequently raise concerns about torture in multilateral fora, including on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Convention Against Torture on 10th December 2014.