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Summary: The Council of Europe says London needs to comply with 1998 ruling that said smacking violates children's rights.
[25 April 2010] - The UK will come under increasing pressure to ban all smacking and corporal punishment of children as the European human rights body steps up pressure for a change in the law. The Council of Europe – which monitors compliance with the European convention on human rights – will criticise the UK because it has not banned smacking more than 10 years after a ruling in 1998 that the practice could violate children's rights against inhuman and degrading treatment. "The campaign to abolish corporal punishment across the Council of Europe is gathering momentum; 20 countries have formally abolished laws allowing it in the past three years," said Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, deputy secretary general of the Council of Europe. "The UK is one of the countries that has not yet implemented a full ban. In part, this is because the traditional parent-child relationship in the UK is one of authority [and] state intervention into family affairs is still not welcome," she added. We are talking about fundamental human rights," she said. "Not only do children have the same human rights as adults, but they are more vulnerable than adults. They need more protection and not less." Current law prohibits the use of force against children, but gives adults in the home and in some part-time schools and religious institutions a defence to the charge of assault in cases of mild force where they can show the punishment was reasonable. The first ban on smacking was not introduced in the UK until 1987, then extended to independent schools in 1999. Further laws passed in the past decade have prohibited the use of corporal punishment in children's homes and state care. Since 2004, the law has changed further to make it harder for parents, or adults "in loco parentis", to use the defence of reasonable punishment when they could otherwise be charged with assault. Concerns remain about smacking at home and in part-time educational institutions such as weekend faith schools, where adults using "reasonable force" can avoid prosecutions. Last month, Sir Roger Singleton, the government's independent adviser on child safety, published a report that recommended smacking should be banned in all places outside the home, citing particular concern about part-time schools and places of worship. "Protection against physical punishment should be extended to all forms of care, education and instruction outside the family," Singleton said. However, the report stopped short of recommending a change in the law that allows parents to use corporal punishment within the home. "I have concluded that any attempt to define those family categories or circumstances to which the availability of the defence ought or ought not to apply would be cumbersome, bureaucratic, largely impractical and very difficult to communicate," Singleton said. None of the three main parties have any specific policy on corporal punishment in their election manifestos. Earlier this year, two Liberal Democrat MPs attempted to introduce a clause in the children, schools and families bill which would have limited the lawful use of corporal punishment to parents and those with parental responsibility. Ed Balls, the children's secretary, has indicated that the government would support a ban on smacking outside the family, but not a full ban. "Sir Roger's report makes it absolutely clear that a child should not be smacked by anyone outside their family. I believe this is a sensible and proportionate approach," Balls said. But the Council of Europe is increasingly critical of the UK's approach, likening the campaign to the move towards the abolition of the death penalty."Specific places cannot be exempt from rights," said De Boer-Buquicchio. "Rights pertain to human beings wherever they are and in whatever circumstances and whatever the setting." Further information Â