Spain urged to ban children from bullfights

THE United Nations has called on Spain to ban children from attending bullfights or bullfighting schools, arguing that exposure to the violent practice has “damaging effects” on minors.

Members of the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child raised concerns about the “level of violence” at Spain’s 55 bullfighting schools, recommending that the government set a minimum age of 18 for such training.

Even attending bullfights as spectators could have a harmful impact, warned the committee, which questioned a Spanish delegation on child welfare issues last month.

“Bullfighting involves an extreme violence for childhood,” Gehad Madi, one committee member, told El Diario, the Spanish daily. “Not only child bullfighters, but also those who attend as spectators.”

He insisted that the committee was not taking a stance on the tradition of bullfighting as a whole, “as it is a historical and cultural event”, but said using children as bullfighters or taking them to events was a “violent exercise”.

The UN report was welcomed by animal rights groups as another blow against the practice, which remains a highly emotive issue in Spain. The conservative government declared bullfighting a cultural asset in 2013, allowing for public funding, a move which many Spaniards opposed.

An Ipsos MORI poll conducted in Spain last year found that only 29 per cent of the country’s population support bullfighting.