Date: October 2002

UN Committee tells UK to ban smacking

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its concluding observations issued on October 4 2002 following its examination of the UK's Second Report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, recommends that the UK should "with urgency adopt legislation throughout the State party to remove the 'reasonable chastisement' defence and prohibit all corporal punishment in the family and in any other contexts not covered by existing legislation".

The Committee also urges the UK Government to "promote positive, participatory and non-violent forms of discipline and respect for children's equal right to human dignity and physical integrity, engaging with children and parents and all those who work with and for them, and carry out public education programmes on the negative consequences of corporal punishment."

This is the full text of the Committee's comments on corporal punishment:

"The Committee welcomes the abolition of corporal punishment in all schools in England, Wales and Scotland, following its 1995 recommendations but is concerned that this abolition has not yet been extended to cover all private schools in Northern Ireland. It welcomes the adoption by the national Assembly for Wales of regulations prohibiting corporal punishment in all forms of day-care, including childminding, but is very concerned that legislation prohibiting all corporal punishment in this context is not yet in place in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

"In light of its previous recommendation, the Committee deeply regrets that the State party persists in retaining the defence of 'reasonable chastisement' and has taken no significant action towards prohibiting all corporal punishment of children in the family.

"The Committee is of the opinion that governmental proposals to limit rather than to remove the 'reasonable chastisement' defence do not comply with the principles and provisions of the Convention and the aforementioned recommendations, particularly since they constitute a serious violation of the dignity of the child. [see similar observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, E/C.12/1/Add.79, para 36]. Moreover, they suggest that some forms of corporal punishment are acceptable and therefore undermine educational measures to promote positive and non-violent discipline."

Click here to download a PDF of the full text of the concluding observations. For further details of the examination of the UK by the Committee, see www.crights.org.uk

The Committee also released concluding observations on reports from eight other States. It recommended explicit abolition of all corporal punishment to Argentina, Seychelles, Sudan, Ukraine, Moldova, Burkina Faso and Poland. It congratulated Israel on having prohibited all corporal punishment. Click here to read Session 31.

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