Corporal punishment

Samoa banned the practice in 2013 but is considering an amendment that would give teachers the right to use reasonable force to discipline students.

The Ombudsman, Maiava Iulai Toma, who also heads Samoa's Human Rights Institution, said a review of the law should wait for a report on domestic violence due next month.

The report was the result of a year-long nationwide inquiry into the high levels of violence and abuse in Samoa.

Maiava said the ultimate responsibility for protecting Samoa's children fell on the State.

Speaking as a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Judge Vui Clarence Nelson said the government had previously assured the UN that corporal punishment had been abolished.

But the Samoa Observer reports Justice Nelson as saying the country seems to be backing out of this promise.

The judge called the move a retrograde step and said the government could not pretend the new policy was not corporal punishment.

Corporal punishment was abolished many years ago in Samoa but the government has frequently raised the possibility of bringing it back to curb violence involving school students.

During his regular radio on 2AP the Prime Minister Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, said legislation is being prepared but he didn't say when or if it will be introduced.

He called on all Samoans to help overcome the student violence issue but if a solution is not forthcoming, then government would do something about the problem.

The mission, which was invited by the Samoa government, travelled across the country holding discussions in several villages.

RNZI reports in its recently published preliminary report, it said it was concerned about the use of corporal punishment against children, which is widely known to contribute to a vicious circle of violence.

One of the experts on the mission, Eleonora Zielinska, said it was regrettable that violence was often justified as being part of Samoan culture.

The Government has temporarily shut down Avele College, after a brawl outside Malua Fou College last Friday morning.

RNZI correspondent in Samoa, Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia said options are running out and students need to have the fear of corporal punishment to deter them.