Ireland may ban hitting of children after Council of Europe finds faults in country’s laws
DUBLIN – The Council of Europe says Ireland should make it illegal to hit children.
Wednesday’s ruling by the 47-nation council’s social rights committee found that Ireland had “no explicit and effective prohibition of all corporal punishment of children.”
Ireland faces no sanctions if it fails to comply. But the government’s minister for children, James Reilly, said Ireland may outlaw the hitting of children outright.
Ireland banned corporal punishment in schools in 1982 and made it a criminal offence in 1996, but the law contains exceptions outside the school gates. Adults accused of punishing children physically can defend themselves on the grounds of “reasonable chastisement.”
The council published a similar ruling two weeks ago against France as part of a wider investigation of child-protection laws in seven EU states.
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