a child whose one of his/her parents is foreigner and highly hampers birth registration of these children. 14. The Committee notes with concern that the BDRA (in regulation 3, 4 and 5) lists the requirements and documents, without which no application for birth registration will be accepted. These include, amongst others, a valid passport and permit of the parent; the fingerprints of the parents if alive; an affidavit by a South African citizen if the birth occurred outside a hospital; and the presence of the mother if the child is born out of wedlock. The Committee notes with great concern that this hinders birth registration of specific groups of children such as children of undocumented parents (whether South African or foreign) or parents whose permits have expired; Children who are in the care of next-of-kin where the parents are alive; Children born at home where there was no witness or the only witness was a foreign national; and Children in the care of single fathers where the mother has abandoned the child or is undocumented. Therefore, the Committee calls upon the Government of South Africa to amend regulation 3, 4 and 5 of the BDRA to remove such stringent requirements and ensure that these group of children are not left at risk of being unregistered. 15. The Committee notes that in order for stateless children to get South African nationality, their births should be registered. However, due to existence of a number of challenges faced by stateless children to get their birth registered, many stateless children cannot benefit from this provision. The Committee has also learned that there is no regulation to implement this section. Therefore, the Committee recommends to the State Party to: a) Ensure that all barriers hindering stateless children from getting their birth registered are removed; b) Ensure that there is regulation facilitating implementation of the relevant Sections of the Citizenship Act which provides application platform enabling every stateless child to go to a relevant office to apply for citizenship; and c) Consider ratifying the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness in order to end childhood statelessness. i. On Violence, Child Abuse, Torture and Sexual Exploitation 16. The Committee notes with appreciation the fact that corporal punishment has been legally banned in schools of the State Party since 1996. However, it notes with concern that still corporal punishment is inflicted in schools. The Committee calls upon the South African Government to expedite adoption of the draft Protocol developed to reduce Incidences of Corporal Punishment in Schools and ensure its implementation in order to fully eliminate this practice in schools. 17. The Committee also notes with concern that corporal punishment is practiced in home setting in South Africa under the Common Law defense of ‘reasonable 6