Call for smacking children to be made illegal

SMACKING children should be made illegal in the Uk, experts will argue today.

Four British children’s commissioners will call for the law to be changed as they address a United nations committee, it has been reported. Currently, the law in england and Wales allows parents to carry out ‘reasonable chastisement’, but they face prosecution if a child is left with bruising, cuts or scratches.

Teachers are not allowed to smack another person’s child and parents cannot use a cane or belt to discipline their children. The debate on smacking will be addressed as part of a Un inquiry into children’s rights, taking place in Switzerland.

The committee will hear evidence from Uk officials, who will push for the law to be changed, according to a report seen by The Sunday Times. It reads: ‘The Uk and devolved governments should ensure that children have equal protection from violence under the law. All corporal punishment in the family and in all other institutions and forms of alternative care should be prohibited, including through the repeal of legal defences.’

Smacking is banned in dozens of counties including Germany, Spain and Sweden, but ministers here have raised concerns that banning it would risk ‘criminalising’ parents.

education Secretary nicky Morgan said in 2014 that ‘sometimes there is a need for a mild smack that doesn’t leave a mark’. Pope Francis has also defended smacking, stating that parents should be able to do so provided it is carried out with ‘dignity’. But those fighting for smacking to be outlawed, such as campaign group Children Are Unbeatable, argue that the young should have the ‘same legal protection from assault as adults’.

Other issues to be addressed during the two-day meeting include the Un’s calls to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Britain – which is currently ten, compared to an average across europe of 14.