Submitted by crinadmin on
[13 November 2006] - Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg last week sent a letter to the Greek Foreign Minister welcoming the recent adoption by Parliament of a law on domestic violence, under which corporal punishment of children has become prohibited. Greece became the fifteenth European country to have legally banned corporal punishment - a move which was described by the Commisioner as a “significant milestone”. The other fourteen European countries to have made this leap are Sweden (1979), Finland (1983), Norway (1987), Austria (1989), Cyprus (1994), Denmark (1997), Latvia (1998), Croatia (1999), Bulgaria (2000), Germany (2000), Iceland (2003), Romania (2004), Ukraine (2004) and Hungary (2005). The Greek Ombudsman (Department of Children’s Rights) noted that some members of the consultative committee on this piece of legislation – made of governmental and NGO participants – were disappointed that the new law did not incorporate the term “corporal punishment”. However, an explanatory report issued to Parliament made it clear that the more general term “physical violence” did include corporal punishment. The Greek law will come into force on 24 January 2007 and will form the basis of a public education campaign aiming to raise awareness of the need to end corporal punishment in parenting. The law’s adoption had been prompted by Greece’s violation of article 17 of the European Social Charter. Further information
pdf: http://www.coe.int/t/commissioner/activities/news2006/061113lawgreece_EN...