CORPORAL punishment remains a divisive issue in society and this continues to be reflected at the level of the Parliamentary Select Committee tasked with deciding whether some laws should be amended.

The Committee is also yet to deal with abolition of the death penalty, Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Ms. Jennifer Webster disclosed yesterday.
In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, she said there have been a number of presentations to the Committee over the course of its meetings and what is evident is that there is no consensus in civil society on the way forward.
Webster revealed that the Committee has, to date, heard from the Rights of the Child Commission, the Guyana Prison Service (GPS), the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and a number of non-governmental organisations.
While she would not want to, definitely, pronounce on the Committee’s work, given that it is an ongoing process, she did point out that legislation from a number of countries are being looked at in relation to Guyana’s existing laws.
But Webster said what is clear, thus far, is the fact that the abolition of corporal punishment in local schools remains one issue on which sections of society are staunchly for and against.

Other matters
She said the Committee is yet to move on with the other matters on its agenda, including abolishing the death penalty as well as the decriminalising of homosexuality.
Despite them being sent to the Special Select Committee last year, the body only this year began undertaking substantive work on the issues at hand.
The United Nations (UN) Rights of the Child Committee, earlier this year, had repeated its call for the outlawing of corporal punishment in Guyana.
This country has received some 100 recommendations from the UN, 57 of which have been accepted by the Administration.
The Government has agreed, as well, to consider another 55 “in due course.”
Those that have not been readily acted upon relate to questions that have been subject to intense debate among all stakeholders, in the past and more recently.
Others that are still to be taken on board include discriminatory laws against gays and lesbians.
Corporal punishment was another hot topic and Webster said it is the first being dealt with at the parliamentary level.
Guyana’s 2003 attempt to include “sexual orientation” under constitutional protections failed to receive the support of the National Assembly.