Strasbourg, 04/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - In a decision published on Wednesday 4 March, the European Committee for Social Rights (ECSR) and the Council of Europe (CoE) stated: “French law does not contain a sufficiently clear, binding and precise ban on corporal punishment inflicted on children either in its law or jurisprudence”.
Consisting of 15 independent and impartial delegates who are elected for six years by the Committee of Ministers of the CoE, the ECSR is in charge of supervising the implementation by the 47 member states of the European Social Charter adopted in 1961 and amended by the Turin Protocol of 1991.
Similarly to the 35 other member states of the CoE*, France has signed and ratified this amended convention, which also recognises that NGOs have the right to present collective complaints against it at the ECSR.
Fourteen other member states of the Council of Europe did likewise in February 2013 and France was subject to question in this connection by the British NGO APPROACH. This organisation defends children's rights and referred to the explicit absence of a ban on all corporal punishment to children in the family, at school and in other frameworks. It underlined the recent decisions taken by the French courts, which it believes reaffirmed “the right of controversial correction”. APPROACH also singled out Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Italy and Ireland, for which a decision will be published next May.
The decision concerning France was taken in September 2014 and was subsequently published on Wednesday, four months after notification to the parties concerned, as stipulated in the procedure.
It highlights the non-compliance of French legislation with Article 17 of the Charter on children's rights regarding social, legal and economic protection. In one of its paragraphs, this article highlights the importance of protecting them against negligence, exploitation and violence and the ECSR points out that it has already alerted France with regard to the subject by recalling its conclusions of 2003, 2005 and 2011.
Although serious violence is banned in France, as underlined by the decision, “uncertainty persists with regard to the right to correction recognised by the courts” and it is this lack of clarity that constitutes a violation of the European Social Charter, according to the experts from the ECSR, which effectively support the argument put forward by APPROACH.
This decision by the ECSR is part of the global CoE approach and we are able to recall in this connection, the “Building a Europe with and for Children” launched in 2006 and completed by the objectives announced by the Committee of Ministers on 15 February 2012, in order to “attain effective implementation of international standards on children's rights”.
At the top of the list of texts is the United Nations International Convention on Children's Rights, which describes corporal punishment as any punishment in which physical force is used with the intention of causing a degree of pain or harm, even slightly. This most often consists of hitting (“correcting”, slapping or smacking children on the hand or with an object)…But this can also consist of, for example giving them kicks, shaking them or throwing them to the ground, pinching them, biting them, pulling their hair, boxing their ears, obliging them to remain in an uncomfortable position, burning them, scolding them or forcing them to ingest something.
This effectively involves an abuse of power, which leads the United Nations children's rights committee to consider that “corporal punishment is invariably degrading” as are “other nonphysical forms of punishment that are just as cruel”, which consists, for example, of belittling children, humiliating them, denigrating them, making them a scapegoat, terrorising or ridiculing them.
Following the example of Sweden, a pioneer in this area given that its legislation dates from 1979, 27 of the 47 member countries of the CoE have so far adopted a legal arsenal banning the use of corporal punishment on children in any circumstances, with no leeway allowed for the judges. The OVEO (Observatory of Common Violence in Upbringing) points out, however, that it is possible that the law is not effectively followed or brought into question at some stage. This organisation has scrutinised the development in the situation in 44 abolitionist countries currently identified in the world. In Sweden, in any case, although there are effectively a number of voices raised criticising an education that has become too permissive, it should be pointed out that 46 years after adoption of the law, more than 90% of adults say that they are opposed to any kind of corporal punishment against children. (Véronique Leblanc)