CJB synopsis from Centre for Child Law

The Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by the South African government in 1995 set the scene for broad-reaching policy and legislative change. The new South African Constitution includes a section protecting children’s rights, which includes the statement that children have the right not to be detained except as a measure of last resort and then for the shortest appropriate period of time, separate from adults and in conditions that take account of his her age. One of the earliest cases to come before the newly constituted Constitutional Court was S v Williams (1995) 3 SA 632 (CC) which dealt with the sentence of corporal punishment, until then a sentence commonly used for the punishment of children by the courts. The court struck down corporal punishment on the grounds that was cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.