The UK's position on allowing childminders to smack the children in their care has raised concern at the United Nations.
The UN committee on the rights of the child published a report last week looking into the progress Britain has made on children's rights since signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991. The committee welcomed the fact that the National Assembly for Wales had adopted regulations prohibiting corporal punishment in all forms of daycare, including childminding, but said it was 'very concerned' that such legislation was not yet in place in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Sue Owen, director of the Early Childhood Unit at the National Children's Bureau, said, 'This will be welcomed by the early years sector because it is well known that the entire sector is campaigning on this issue, particularly the childminders themselves.'
The UN committee also said it deeply regretted that the British Government had persisted in retaining the defence of 'reasonable chastisement' and had taken no significant action towards outlawing all corporal punishment of children in the family. The report added, '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, particularly since they constitute a serious violation of the dignity of the child.
'Moreover, they suggest that some forms of corporal punishment are acceptable and therefore undermine educational measures to promote positive and non-violent discipline.'
The committee urged the Government to adopt legislation removing the 'reasonable chastisement' defence and to prohibit all corporal punishment in the family and in any other contexts. It also called for the promotion of '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'.
On a more positive note, the UN committee welcomed the abolition of corporal punishment in all schools in England, Wales and Scotland, following its recommendations made in 1995, though it said it was 'concerned that this abolition has not yet been extended to cover all private schools in Northern Ireland'.
The report also welcomed the Government's establishment last year of the Children's and Young People's Unit, and the appointment of a children's commissioner in Wales and plans for similar posts in Scotland and Nor- thern Ireland. But it expressed concern at the lack of 'an independent human rights institution for children in England'.
The NSPCC welcomed the report and called for the Government to act 'urgently' on its recommendations regarding the physical punishment of children, saying it was out of step with public opinion, child protection professionals and the UN. NSPCC director Mary Marsh said the 19th century law of "reasonable chastisement" was 'well past its sell-by date' because it sent out a 'dangerous message to parents that hitting children is acceptable and safe, which it clearly is not'. 'The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the benchmark for how we should treat children in the 21st century. We need a modern law to protect children from being hit.'
