Wales has joined Scotland to outlaw hitting children in a new law which came into effect on Monday, March 21, 2022.
Under the new law, all forms of corporal punishments of children, including smacking, slapping and shaking, are henceforth outlawed.
The change means that, as is already the case in Scotland, hitting a child will be considered common assault — the same as for adults.
Hitherto, smacking a child in Wales was previously considered unlawful but allowed as long as it constituted “reasonable punishment”.
This remains the case for the law in England and Northern Ireland.
What was considered “reasonable” depended on elements including what mark was left on the child and whether a fist or other implement was used.
Notably more than 60 countries around the world have made laws against the physical punishment of children.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child — an international agreement on childhood, in its statutory quest to safeguard the global rights of children, states that children should be protected from physical and mental abuse.
This Convention has not yet been fully implemented or widely known and understood globally, as millions of children continue to suffer violations of their rights, being denied adequate health care, nutrition, education and protection from violence; or subjected to manual labor, get married, fight in wars, or locked up in adult prisons – AFP.
