Many children and young people are involved in the campaign on smacking, as they have strong views that smacking should be banned. Not only are adults involved in the debate, but the people who matter. Children and young people have set up initiatives to campaign on the issue.

The young person led organisation Article 12 has been campaigning for many years on smacking, as the young people involved in the organisation believe strongly that the law should be changed so that smacking is banned. Another young people’s group is Young NCB which is a free membership network for all children and young people, they are supported by the National Children’s Bureau. The young people involved have a chance to speak out on the issues that concern them; one of the issues the group decided to look at was smacking. At the moment the group have sent out questionnaires; once they have analysed these, the group will decide what to do about making sure people hear what has been said.

It’s not only children and young people campaigning about this issue in the United Kingdom, but across Europe - as in many of the European countries, children are the only group of people who do not have a legal right to be protected from assault by their parents. The youngest and most vulnerable citizens are still not protected fully by legislation because parents and other people responsible for the care of children are allowed to inflict corporal punishment.

In November last year James Anderson and myself were invited to the 4th meeting of the Forum for Children and Families, this was held at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. At the meeting we gave a presentation on Children’s Views and Experiences of Corporal Punishment. As well as this we were able to join in the rest of the forum and give our opinions. The forum had invited 6 young delegates from across Europe. All of these young people had experiences on the issue of Corporal Punishment. It was a good experience to find out the views of young people in other European countries in the smacking debate, and many are similar to those of young people in the United Kingdom.

The problem faced by children and young people campaigning on children’s issues is the threat that the Government won’t listen to them. It is only fairly recently that young people are being consulted on issues affecting them. For instance the Joint Committee on Human Rights made history by being the first committee of Parliament to ask for evidence from children and young people.

Many charities are involved in the debate; many have consulted with children and young people and have produced publications on the findings.

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Save the Children conducted an extensive consultation in Scotland about the use of physical punishment by parents and carers. ‘It doesn’t solve anything’ draws on the opinions of over 1300 children from across Scotland, with varying backgrounds: such as; young people in schools, after school, groups, youth groups and a number of gypsy children. Similar publications have also been produced: ‘It Hurts you Inside’ by Save the Children UK and the National Children’s Bureau. Also ‘It’s a Hit not a ‘smack’ is a booklet about what children think about being hit or smacked by adults and was produced by Save the Children Northern Ireland. They asked almost 200 boys and girls aged 4 to 11 years what they think about being hit or smacked by adults.

To talk to children and young people, they devised questionnaires and held focus groups. With younger children, art and drama was used. Also the character Splodge was used along with a specially commissioned storybook to consult with children in England and Northern Ireland about smacking for two different publications: ‘It Hurts you Inside’ and, ‘It’s a HIT, not a smack’. Splodge was used as a consultation tool and was introduced to children as an alien from outer space who is very curious about life on earth, especially about smacking.

A number of recommendations have been formed that could be used in the smacking debate:
• To ban all forms of corporal punishment, as there are other ways of disciplining children.
• To appoint an independent Children’s Rights Commissioner. Without this link children and young people will carry on being ignored when changes are made concerning them and importantly, a Commissioner would ensure Government sticks to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• Children and Young People deserve equal protection to adults under law and so the legal provision in countries which allows parents to hit their children requires urgent attention and full abolition.
• Children and Young People’s self-advocacy on this subject is also very important; it is something which should be supported and respected.

These are just some recommendations, but everyone needs to put a great deal of effort into banning smacking. That means parents, adults, governments, banks and of course children and young people.

Useful Websites

www.article12.com
www.youngncb.org.uk
www.childrenareunbeatable.org.uk
www.savethechildren.org.uk
www.crights.org.uk
www.endcorporalpunishment.org