Doc. 9716

3 March 2003

A Europe-wide ban on the corporal punishment of children

Motion for a recommendation

presented by Mrs Bargholtz and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it.

1.       The corporal punishment of children in the family or institutions can seriously impair the physical and mental health and development of the child.

2.       Several international legal instruments seek to protect children from physical or mental violence, injury or abuse. They include the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 19), ratified by all the member states of the Council of Europe, the European Social Charter (Article 17), and several recommendations by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

3.       Yet only nine Council of Europe member states have enacted explicit bans on corporal punishment by parents and all other carers: Austria (1989), Croatia (1999), Cyprus (1994), Denmark (1997), Finland (1983), Germany (2000), Latvia (1998), Norway (1987) and Sweden (1979).

4.       The Parliamentary Assembly welcomes the work under way on this subject within the Council of Europe, notably as part of the project on responses to violence in everyday life in a democratic society and by the Forum for Children and Families, and recommends that the Committee of Ministers intensify this work.

5.       The Parliamentary Assembly also welcomes the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children (http://endcorporalpunishment.org), and recommends that the Committee of Ministers organise a Europe-wide campaign in support.

Signed (see overleaf)

Signed : 1

Bargholtz, Sweden, LDR

Ahlqvist, Sweden, SOC

Baška, Slovakia, SOC

Cox, United Kingdom, SOC

Donabauer, Austria, EPP

Einarsson, Sweden, UEL

Flynn, United Kingdom, SOC

Hancock, United Kingdom, LDR

Hegyi, Hungary, SOC

Ionescu, Romania, NR

Lachnit, Czech Republic, SOC

Olekas, Lithuania, SOC

Piscitello, Italy, LDR

Popa, Romania, SOC

Ragnarsdóttir, Iceland, EGD

Surján, Hungary, EPP

Vis, United Kingdom, SOC

1        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group