Date: November 2001

UK responses to European Court judgment on parental corporal punishment

Northern Ireland issues consultation paper on law reform
Launching Northern Ireland’s consultation exercise on how to change the law which allows corporal punishment on September 11 2001, Mark Durkan, Minister of Finance and Personnel, said the matter raised human rights and equality issues and was not a subject for "knee-jerk reaction or angry words". (Northern Ireland is the last of the four countries of the UK to issue a consultation document following the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of A v UK, which required the UK to change the law allowing "reasonable chastisement to give children better protection; for details of the UK campaign to end all corporal punishment, see www.childrenareunbeatable.org.uk. Scotland announced its proposals for reform in September 2001 - see news item on Children Are Unbeatable! site as above).

The Northern Ireland consultation period closed on January 31 2002. The Office of Law Reform is conducting the consultation. It issued a full consultation paper: Physical punishment in the home: thinking about the issues, looking at the evidence, an executive summary and children’s and young people’s materials; all are available at http://www.olrni.gov.uk/home.htm. A wide-ranging consultation is proposed, engaging relevant professionals and the wider community, parents and children and equality groups. A range of consultation mechanisms are being used, including written papers, internet consultation, focus groups and workshop activities for children and young people.

The options for reform listed are:

• Definition and/or limitation of the defence of reasonable chastisement;
• Removal of the defence of reasonable chastisement; and
• The introduction of a statutory statement of parents’ and children’s rights and responsibilities, including a statement about discipline, which could be included in a statutory definition of parental responsibility.

The paper summarises criticisms of the present law:

• It fails to meet human rights standards in the Human Rights Act 1998, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international instruments;
• The law is insufficiently certain to properly protect children or to let parents know where they stand;
• There is increasing evidence that physical punishment is, in various ways, bad for children, and is in any event a largely ineffective disciplinary strategy. The law is failing to take account of this evidence;
• There are equality issues under section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. In particular the law does not provide children with the same level of protection or remedy as it does adults in cases of assault.

Minister announces no change to law in England and Wales
A Minister in the Department of Health in London announced on November 8 2001 that the Government did not intend to change the law allowing "reasonable chastisement" in England or Wales, but would rely on the Human Rights Act 1998 (which incorporates rights in the European Human Rights Convention into UK domestic law) to protect children. The announcement was condemned as a "betrayal of children" by the broad alliance of over 300 organisations, "Children are unbeatable!", which is campaigning for abolition of all corporal punishment. For details and links see www.childrenareunbeatable.org.uk.

Debate in National Assembly for Wales
The Minister for Health and Social Services in the National Assembly for Wales said she had "considerable personal sympathy" for a total ban on physical punishment at the end of a short debate on the topic "Hitting people is wrong and children are people too" on January 24 2002. Introduced by Assembly Member (AM) Christine Chapman, the debate included supportive speeches from Labour, Liberal Democrat, Plaid Cymru and Conservative AMs.

Christine Chapman expressed strong concern at the announcement by the Department of Health that it did not intend to change the law allowing "reasonable chastisement" in England and Wales. Introducing the debate, she said: "Hitting children is an attack on their human rights. It hurts children emotionally as well as physically, and has the potential to escalate and cause serious injury. Also, as a parent, I do not think that it works; it is therefore an ineffective form of discipline".

For full report go to bilingual version of debate on CAU! site.

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