It was administered with strokes from a tamarind-tree switch or a cat o' nine tail whip.

Jamaica is preparing to abolish a slavery-era law allowing flogging and whipping as means of punishing prisoners.

The justice ministry says the punishment hasn't been ordered since 2004 but the statutes remains in the Caribbean country's penal code. It was administered with strokes from a tamarind-tree switch or a cat o' nine tail whip.

Justice Minister Mark Golding says the "degrading" punishment is an anachronism which violates the Caribbean island's international obligations. It is preventing the government from ratifying the U.N. convention against torture.

In a Thursday statement, Golding said the time has come to get "these colonial-era laws off our books once and for all."

Cabinet has given its approval for repeal of the laws in the former British colony, where plantation slavery was particularly brutal.