Child corporal punishment laws
Corporal punishment of minor children by parents or adult guardians, which is intended to cause physical pain, has been traditionally legal in nearly all countries unless explicitly outlawed.
[1] Many countries' laws provide for a defence of "reasonable chastisement" against charges of assault and other crimes for parents using corporal punishment.
On 15 March 1989, corporal punishment of children became explicitly banned through a new law stating that "using violence and inflicting physical or mental suffering is unlawful".
[23] Corporal punishment in schools was banned in Belarus during the Soviet era, however it was decriminalized after its authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko took power in 1994.
School beltings are rare in major cities and remain much more common in rural areas, where parents tend to raise their children in more conservative manners.
In 2018, Lukashenko rejected the bill that would have outlawed corporal punishments for minors both in educational facilities and at home, arguing that he himself belted his children in their adolescence to discipline them.
In 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the constitutional challenge on all grounds, on a 6–3 split, in Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v.
The majority held that the person administering the discipline must be a parent or legal guardian, or in some cases, a school teacher (i.e. non-parental relatives such as grandparents, aunts, or uncles, as well as babysitters and other caretakers, are banned from spanking); that the force must be used "by way of correction" (sober, reasoned uses of force that address the actual behaviour of the child and are designed to restrain, control or express some symbolic disapproval of his or her behaviour), that the child must be capable of benefiting from the correction (i.e. not under the age of 2 or over 12), and that the use of force must be "reasonable under the circumstances", meaning that it results neither in harm nor in the prospect of bodily harm.
[27] Among the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, formed to redress the legacy of the Canadian Indian residential school system, is a call to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code.
[29] The Czech Republic is the only country in the European Union that does not outlaw child corporal punishment or plan to introduce such a law.
Denmark's autonomous territories, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, banned corporal punishment of children in 2007 and 2016, respectively.
It constitutes a case of poor exercise of custody and for this reason brings about the application of article 1532 of the Civil Code.
[40][41] Teachers were not liable to criminal prosecution until 1997, when the rule of law allowing physical chastisement was explicitly abolished.
[44][39] In response to a complaint filed with the European Committee of Social Rights,[45] the defence was abolished under the Children First Act 2015.
In 1996, the Supreme Court of Italy ruled that in domestic settings, physical punishment is no longer an acceptable way to discipline children.
(2) Whoever contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1) shall be liable to disciplinary action under the service rules applicable to such person.” Guidance (”Advisory for Eliminating Corporal Punishment in Schools under Section 35(1) of the RTE Act 2009”) which sets out the national law relevant to corporal punishment in schools, the international human rights standards, steps that may be taken to promote positive child development and not resorting to corporal punishment, and the role of national bodies in implementing the RTE Act, stating: “This advisory should be used by the State Governments/UT Administrations to ensure that appropriate State/school level guidelines on prevention of corporate punishment and appropriate redressal of any complaints, are framed, disseminated, acted upon and monitored.”[49][50] On 25 January 2000, the Supreme Court of Israel issued the landmark Plonit decision ruling that "corporal punishment of children by their parents is never educational", "always causes serious harm to the children" and "is indefensible".
"[52] As a result, all kinds of physical discipline against children were automatically banned through the country, as confirmed by multiple subsequent court rulings.
[59] However, the Supreme Court of Norway ruled in 2005 that a light "careful slap" applied immediately after the "offence" was still allowed.
According to article 40 in the 1997 Constitution of Poland, "No one may be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
Common-law precedent in South Africa held that a parent may "inflict moderate and reasonable chastisement" on a child.
[69] In January 2021, article 915 was fully repealed and South Korea become the 62nd country in the world to ban all kinds of corporal punishment against children.
In June 2021, the Spanish Parliament passed a new, pioneering child and adolescent protection law against all kinds of violence or abuse.
It was championed by the British-Spanish pianist James Rhodes and the left-wing party Unidas Podemos, but eventually supported by all political groups in Parliament except Vox.
The case shook the general public and preventing child abuse became a political hot topic for years to come.
[97] Utilising the unlawful threshold, the courts of England and Wales have convicted parents on the basis that their acts amounted to ABH and were therefore unlawful, yet have passed sentences less than six months, contrary to the requirement of more than six months; police and social services also continue to use the long-withdrawn assertions of the CPS, leading to some parents or others acting in loco parentis being criminalised (often by police cautions for lesser common assault on a position of guilt to ABH) or investigated for causing minor injuries that did not amount to ABH in law.
[102] In a 2012 poll conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion, 63% of Britons voiced opposition to banning parents in the UK from smacking their children.
[104] On 20 March 2020 the Welsh Assembly passed the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act 2020.
[106] On 21 March 2022 the “smacking ban” came into force in Wales, making corporal punishment of children officially illegal.
Social acceptance is generally high, through allowances made for "moderate physical discipline" (using this or similar language) in most states' laws regarding assault, criminal battery, domestic violence or child abuse.
Whether an instance of corporal punishment exceeds these bounds is usually decided on a case-by-case basis in family court proceedings.
