MOGOENG CJ right to family in particular49 must suffer the same fate. Not only does international law not recognise the right to discipline, but our Constitution does not make express provision for it, unlike the rights sought to be vindicated here. [64] And this is compounded by the paucity of clear or satisfactory empirical evidence that supports chastisement as a beneficial means of instilling discipline. Though not conclusive, there are, however, some pointers to the potentially harmful effect of chastisement.50 Some of that research is open to criticism in that very little effort seems to have been made to distinguish between moderate and excessive or abusive application of force to the body of a child. In many of those studies, there has been a strong leaning on the effects of plain abuse and excessive application of force on the well-being of a child and very little on truly moderate and reasonable chastisement. That said, positive parenting reduces the need to enforce discipline by resorting to potentially violent methods. It could replace occasionally harsh and inconsistent parenting with non-violent and consistent strategies for discipline like positive commands, tangible rewards and problem-solving, obviously depending on age. [65] What militates more against the retention of the defence of moderate and reasonable chastisement is the best interests of the child, which are of paramount importance in all matters involving a child. To retain this kind of chastisement, it would have to be demonstrated that apart from the fact that it ordinarily falls within the category of assault, there is something about it that advances the best interests of the child. In other words, there must be something about this excusable crime of assault that evidently redounds to the good of the child. It bears repetition that not much was said to help us appreciate that the benefits of that chastisement indeed outweigh its disadvantages, and thus justify the limitation. 49 Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 18 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Banjul Charter). See, for example, the sections on “corporal punishment as a risk factor for no optimal child development” and “physiologic changes associated with corporal punishment and verbal abuse” in Sege et al “Effective discipline to Raise Healthy Children” (2018) 142 Pediatrics at 4. 50 24