Corporal punishment in schools was banned in 1914. [34] The right of parents to corporal punishment for their children was prohibited in 1969 when the section of the Constitution on assault was removed from the Penal Code, stipulating that “minor assault” is not punishable if committed by parents or others exercising their right to punish a child. In 1983, corporal punishment of children was expressly prohibited. The Czech Republic is the only country in the European Union that does not prohibit corporal punishment of children or is considering adopting such a law. In 2013, the Czech government published a report opposing such a regulation. [30] In Canada, the law still allows parents to use corporal punishment to discipline their children. A recent study by psychologist Frank J. Elgar`s study showed that countries that have completely banned corporal punishment have less violence among young people. Health researcher Jo Becker argues that permanent change occurs when bans are combined with public education. As laws changed, changes in attitudes and practices quickly followed. Corporal punishment in schools was expressly prohibited in Austria in 1974.
In 1977, corporal punishment in the family was prohibited by the deletion of the section of the Constitution on assault in the penal code which states that parents who have applied “reasonable punishment” to their children should not be punished for assault. On 15 March 1989, corporal punishment of children was expressly prohibited by a new law stipulating that “the use of force and the infliction of physical or mental suffering are illegal”. [23] Corporal punishment in schools was expressly prohibited in 1936. In 1972, an 1891 law giving parents a certain right to use corporal punishment against their children was removed from the Constitution of the Penal Code relating to bodily assault, making corporal punishment of children illegal and punishable as bodily harm. In order to clarify that violence against children is not permitted, an explicit prohibition of corporal punishment of children came into force in 1987. [58] Canadian law recognizes certain situations in which a parent or guardian may use appropriate force against a child. This defence is provided for in section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada, which reads as follows: Sweden was the first country in the world to prohibit all corporal punishment of children in 1966, when the law allowing parents to use corporal punishment of their children was repealed and completely replaced by the Constitution of Assault under the Penal Code; Although the law no longer supports the right of parents to physically punish their children, it is assumed that it is still permissible (since there is no explicit prohibition). Corporal punishment in schools has been prohibited since 1958.
Many bills to repeal article 43 of the Criminal Code have been introduced but have not been adopted by Parliament. The most recent, a private legislator`s bill repealing section 43 of the federal Criminal Code (Bill S-206), passed second reading in the Senate in 2018, but did not progress until Parliament was prorogued in 2019. In May 2022, legislation was introduced in the House of Commons to repeal section 43 (Bill C-273). [5] In June 2022, another bill to repeal section 43 was introduced in the Senate (Bill S-251). If the Senate bill passes, it must be sent back to the House of Commons for debate. [6] In its report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in May 2022,[7] the government stated that the amendment to the Penal Code to repeal Article 43 was controversial and that the 2004 Supreme Court decision stated that the law should only allow corporal punishment, which was not severe. Canada became a pioneer country in February 2018 with the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children. This commits the government to take accelerated action over three to five years to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16.2. Despite this commitment, the government has taken note of the recommendations to enact an explicit ban, which were presented during the General Periodic Review in 2018. [8] In a 2013 survey of 500 parents and other primary caregivers of children aged 0 to 6 living in Ontario, 25% of respondents beat or beat their child at least once a week. Parents who use corporal punishment belong to all socio-economic groups. Parents aged 35 to 44 were more likely to use corporal punishment than younger parents.
Parents with less or less high school education were less likely to use corporal punishment than parents with higher levels of education, and low-income parents were less likely to use corporal punishment than higher-income parents. A quarter (26%) of respondents agreed that “slapping or hitting is an effective way to raise a child”; 72% disagreed. Fifty-five percent agreed that “hitting teaches children that it`s okay to hit others.” Sixty-one per cent of respondents mistakenly believed that Canadian law prohibits parents from physically punishing children of any age. In Napoleonic times, parents were expressly allowed to physically punish their children. Spanking was popular, with 85% of French parents admitting to using it. However, in 2019, the National Assembly passed a bill that introduced a total ban on all forms of corporal punishment of children and required mayors who officiate at civil marriages to remind couples that violence against children is illegal. [5] The law makes corporal punishment a civil, not a criminal, offence. [35] This UNESCO publication proposes a comprehensive approach, including the main steps to be taken into account in the elimination of corporal punishment, and provides tools to achieve this goal. It shows the human rights imperative and describes various aspects of the negative consequences and implications of human rights.