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xPaediatricians recommend ban on physical punishment of children in England and Northern Ireland
Date: 17th May 2024
Category:
General measures of implementation, General principles, Violence against children
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has called for a ban on smacking children in England and Northern Ireland, highlighting the practice as unjust, dangerous, and harmful.
The Royal College states that smacking increases the likelihood of children experiencing poor mental health, struggling academically, and becoming victims of physical assault or abuse. They emphasise that smacking is a violation of children's rights and should not be justified as "reasonable punishment" under current laws.
The Royal College labelled it "a scandal" that while Scotland and Wales have already outlawed smacking, England and Northern Ireland have not followed suit. The paediatricians urge Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to change legislation before the anticipated general election later this year. They call on all political parties to include a commitment to ban smacking in their election manifestos.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its recent recommendations called upon the UK Government to explicitly prohibit, as a matter of priority, corporal punishment in all settings, including in the home, throughout the State party, including the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies of Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and to repeal legal defences of “reasonable punishment” in England and Northern Ireland.