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[4 January 2007] - Parents who smack their children could face assault charges if the force they use is deemed "excessive" as part of far-reaching plans recommended to the Government.
But Child Rapporteur Geoffrey Shannon has stopped short of calling for an all-out ban on the use of physical force by parents against their children. The child law expert has warned that Ireland may be in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights which bans torture, inhuman treatment, degradation and physical punishment. He said that Irish laws need to be revised to make them compatible with the convention. But he said any proposed smacking ban may be unconstitutional as it would interfere with parents' decision-making rights. He has therefore proposed that laws covering assault be changed to include parents if the force used by them is deems to be "excessive" or "unreasonable". Behind the times Many countries have removed legislative provisions which allow for 'reasonable' punishment of children, including New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain. Others, most recently Chile, Venezuela and Uruguay have also banned all corporal punishment of children. Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child says that children have the right not to be hurt in any way by anyone, including their parents. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has very clearly stated in its General Comment 8 that all corporal punishment is a violation of children's rights, while the Council of Europe has also called for a ban. The UN Study on Violence against children also notes permitting corporal punishment is inconsistent with principles of non-violence. And there is a raft of evidence to suggest corporal punishment harms children. Parents rights preside However, Mr Shannon, the chairman of the Adoption Board, has urged politicians to ban corporal punishment within the family and other care settings, but says parents should be protected by the law if the force they use is "reasonable in the circumstances". "From a constitutional perspective, any legislation in this area would have to respect the principle of parental autonomy as set out in Articles 41 and 42 of the Irish Constitution," said Mr Shannon in a special report on child protection submitted to the Government earlier this month. "The Constitution provides a very high level of protection to the decision-making autonomy of parents. Any attempt to prohibit corporal punishment would likely fall foul of these articles. "For this reason, very careful consideration should be given as to the appropriate point at which parental punishment will be capable of being found to be unjustifiable. The Constitution may require a different standard from that which would be objectively reasonable." Ireland has outlawed corporal punishment in schools, creches and detention centres, but there is no law in place which expressly bans physical punishment of children in the home and parents are virtually immune from prosecution. Despite the fact that slapping children has become less acceptable in modern society, the majority of Irish parents are opposed to legalisation which would see it outlawed according to a recent survey on parenting website, Rollercoaster.ie. Slapping Last year, the Government rejected calls for a total ban on smacking, insisting that the culture of parents disciplining their children by force was already changing. The Law Reform Commission, the Government's legal watchdog, has also rejected the abolition of corporal punishment in the home. It said that the physical abuse of children was intolerable and recommended that sudden changes in the law could only be done "at the right time". The absence of laws banning corporal punishment in the home has set Ireland on a collision course with the Council of Europe, the World Organisation against Torture and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.