Development & Aid, Europe, Headlines, Human Rights, Population

RIGHTS-EUROPE: Cracking Down on Corporal Punishment of Children

Mario de Queiroz

LISBON, May 18 2006 (IPS) - Zero tolerance for the use of physical punishment against children and all forms of domestic violence was the policy consensus reached when the Council of Europe (CE) turned its attention to family matters in Lisbon this week.

Within the framework of this year’s theme, “Changes in Parenting: Children Today, Parents Tomorrow,” representatives from all 46 CE member states, gathered Tuesday and Wednesday for the 28th Session of the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Family Affairs, agreed that Europe must be constructed “for and with children.”

To this end, the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental body set up to defend and promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law, has called on member states to abolish all forms of corporal punishment and child abuse.

“Children are not mini-persons with mini-rights,” CE deputy secretary general Maud de Boer-Buquicchio told a news conference at the event’s inauguration. “Children are full-fledged human beings with full entitlement to the respect of their human rights.”

Respecting the human dignity of children means not hitting them, not injuring them and not humiliating them – “full stop,” she emphasised.

Only 14 CE member states have banned all forms of corporal punishment. Sweden, in 1979, was the first to pass strict legislation.

Countries that have followed in Sweden’s footsteps include Finland (1983), Norway (1987), Austria (1989), Cyprus (1994), Denmark (1997), Latvia (1998), Croatia (1999), Germany and Bulgaria (2000), Iceland (2003), the Ukraine and Hungary (2004) and Romania (2005).

De Boer-Buquicchio noted that the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1999, imposes responsibilities on parents, but these obligations must also be enforced by government authorities.

She also said that countries must implement adequate and effective family-friendly policies in the spirit of the CE’s European Social Charter, which states that the family unit has the right to appropriate social, legal and economic protection to ensure its full development.

De Boer-Buquicchio underscored the CE’s respect for the intimate and private nature of families, which nonetheless should not be interpreted as an excuse for parents to do whatever they want to their children, she added.

While conference topics spanned a range of family policy issues, the spotlight was on violence against children in Europe. The continent boasts the world’s highest standard of living. But two children in Germany, two in Britain and three in France die from abuse each year, according to CE data.

In their final declaration, the ministers outlined their commitment to implement coordinated family-friendly measures aimed at stemming Europe’s demographic decline. The document made special mention of improving job opportunities for women in a new context of co-participation, where both sexes share equally in family responsibilities.

“Governments should respond to their own socio-demographic changes by adapting legislation to take account of different family lifestyles,” reads the final declaration, which also calls on governments to take the necessary steps to ensure full acceptance of women in the labour market and a greater role for men in family life.

The document also outlines the ministers’ zero-tolerance position on child abuse and exploitation, and their commitment to combating poverty and social marginalisation, prioritising children’s rights and eradicating of all forms of violence against children.

In a conference-results summary provided to IPS, Portugal’s Minister of Social Solidarity and Labour José Antonio Vieira da Silva said that “this was a major meeting in terms of consensus building and influence on future European policies, which attests to its importance.”

“We have brought together a large number of government officials to discuss issues of the highest importance, all of which have a bearing on the future of Europe’s social model and its place as a continent of freedom, justice and opportunities for all,” he added.

Particularly “it is about constructing a Europe where childhood and adolescence are happy times, safe from pressures, violence and exploitation.”

A conference debate that generated significant interest discussed the concept of “reconciling family and professional lives, in a world that is in constant, frantic motion,” said Vieira da Silva, who also holds the Family Affairs portfolio in socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates’ government.

He views such a reconciliation as “an essential strategic step towards establishing a more developed, equitable and competitive society.”

By sharing their experiences, member states “have generated good ideas with a common goal in mind: promoting the family as a space of freedom, where citizenship is developed and values are transmitted – fundamental objectives of a society free of exploitation and violence against children.”

In Europe, “we are trying to create societies that are better able to defend their children.” Thus, many countries must implement progressive laws, “but most of all, we need to tackle the vast cultural aspects,” said Vieira da Silva.

“Authority is a fact of child rearing, but what we need to get across is that it is not acceptable to use violence to exercise that authority,” he emphasised.

Childhood “is a time when values are learned, but these must never be instilled through physical violence. A culture of tolerance must be fostered in the educative process,” concluded the minister.

Mexico was the only developing nation to participate as an observer in the meeting. “The family unit in my country is evolving, and we want to be able to learn from the experience of European countries, taking advantage of the positive and avoiding the potentially negative,” the president of Mexico’s National System for Family Development, Ana Rosa Payán Cervera, told IPS.

Mexico’s interest in this kind of gathering stems from the fact that the country’s 103 million people comprise “as many kinds of families as there are ethnic groups, social classes or geographical areas. Every family, like the people in them, is unique, therefore no one strategy can apply to all of them,” said Payán Cervera.

The United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) regional advisor, Deepa Grover, told IPS that the gathering in Lisbon was “extremely useful, because it demonstrates the high importance the developed world places on family and children’s issues.”

“The excellent lessons we are learning in Europe are doubly important for UNICEF, because we can promote them around the world in countries where these kinds of policies simply do not exist,” she concluded.