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Children
are unbeatable! Supporters’ Conference International human rights standards: Pressure on governments throughout the world to prohibit all corporal punishment of children as a fundamental violation of human rights continues to increase. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended prohibition to more than 120 states in all continents. When it examined the UK’s second report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child last year it referred back to its 1995 formal recommendation and stated that it “deeply regrets that the State party persists in retaining the defence of ‘reasonable chastisement’ and has taken no significant action towards prohibiting all corporal punishment of children in the family.” The Committee specifically criticised proposals to limit rather than remove completely the defence, which it noted do not comply with the Convention and constituted “a serious violation of the dignity of the child. Moreover, they suggest that some forms of corporal punishment are acceptable and therefore undermine educational measures to promote positive and non-violent discipline.” And the Committee went on to recommend that the UK should “with urgency adopt legislation throughout the State party to remove the “reasonable chastisement” defence and prohibit all corporal punishment in the family and in any other contexts not covered by existing legislation; promote positive, participatory and non-violent forms of discipline and respect for children’s equal right to human dignity and physical integrity, engaging with children and parents and all those who work with and for them, and carry out public education programmes on the negative consequences of corporal punishment.” In May the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, echoed the Committee on the Rights of the Child in telling the UK it should prohibit corporal punishment in the family, “given the principle of the dignity of the individual that provides the foundation for international human rights law”. The Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Torture, Theo Van Boven from the Netherlands, reported to the UN General Assembly last Autumn and highlighted the issue of corporal punishment of children and the growing international consensus against it. His report states “that any form of corporal punishment of children is contrary to the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. It “therefore calls upon States to take adequate measures, in particular legal and educational ones, to ensure that the right to physical and mental integrity of children is as well protected in the public as in the private spheres.” When this report was discussed in the UN in November, a spokeswoman for the European Union from Denmark stated that the EU echoed this recommendation. In Europe,
it is the 44-member Council of Europe which has taken the lead in condemning
all corporal punishment of children. Opening a seminar organised by the
Council’s Forum on Families and Children in November, the Deputy Secretary
General stated: “It is of vital importance that everybody concerned with
children work collectively as well as individually towards ending corporal
punishment of children”. And she concluded: “I would therefore like to take this opportunity to challenge the governments of the member states of the Council of Europe to stop defending - or disguising as discipline - deliberate violence against children and to accept that children, like adults, have the fundamental human right not to be assaulted. And I would go even further: in the face of such a fundamental right states cannot remain indifferent - it is their duty to interfere. Hitting children is no more acceptable than hitting anyone else. There can be no divide in the respect of human rights!” Significantly, the seminar was attended by a representative of the Children and Young People’s Unit. The Committee of Ministers of the Council is also responsible for ensuring that states respect judgments of the European Court of Human Rights – and it is not satisfied with the UK’s response to the “A v UK” judgment, now more than four years old, which triggered the various consultations on legal reform across the UK. The UK was asked in December to explain its inaction in terms of legal reform and there will be more discussion in February in Strasbourg. Also, the European Social Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the European Social Charter, has issued a general observation stating that article 17 of the Charter requires member-states to prohibit all corporal punishment. In examining the UK’s last report under article 17, it asked for further information on the legality of corporal punishment, meanwhile deferring its conclusion. This process is likely to lead to a binding recommendation, probably in 2004 – and it is clear that like the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Social Rights Committee is particularly critical of laws which defend some level of corporal punishment. Global progress on abolition: Only nine European States and Israel have prohibited all corporal punishment. But there are active debates now in several other European countries and a draft Bill which includes abolition is before Parliament in Romania. In South Africa, the Law Commission has proposed complete removal of the “reasonable chastisement” defence (all corporal punishment outside the home is already prohibited). In New Zealand, the Government is supporting public education and removal of the defence is under review by the Cabinet. In Tasmania, the Law Commission has conducted a consultation on removing the defence, following an active campaign by the Commissioner for Children. In Canada, the Supreme Court will hear a constitutional challenge to the defence of “lawful correction”, probably before the end of 2003.
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