SECOND OPINION:We need a zero tolerance approach to corporal punishment, writes JACKY JONES
WHAT IS it about Irish people’s attitudes to children’s rights? The recent scene in Coronation Street which showed Owen slapping Faye, Anna’s adopted daughter, reminded me that Ireland still hasn’t banned corporal punishment in the home. The scene sparked off a debate in the UK papers but none here, even though virtually all human rights organisations have urged Ireland to ban corporal punishment within the family. We are still not taking assaults on children seriously. Euphemisms such as smacking or slapping are words used to minimise what is actually happening. If two adults are involved, is it okay for one to give the other a slap if she or he doesn’t obey orders? There are probably many people who think one adult slapping another in the family home is no big deal and more than a third of Irish adults think slapping children is no big deal either. If a stranger gave you a “smack” would you think it was okay? Most of us would go straight to the nearest garda station.
Hitting children is against the Convention on the Rights of the Child which Ireland ratified in 1992. Signing up to this convention meant that Ireland agreed to advance children’s rights and report progress. The last 2005 report, commenting on parents and corporal punishment, states, unbelievably, “The common law recognises the right of a parent to inflict moderate and reasonable physical chastisement on a child.”
The UN, responding to the government’s report in 2006, “was deeply concerned that corporal punishment within the family is still not prohibited by law”. It urged Ireland to “explicitly prohibit all forms of corporal punishment in the family, to sensitise and educate parents and the general public about the unacceptability of corporal punishment, and promote non-violent forms of discipline as an alternative to corporal punishment”. None of these recommendations have been acted on in the past six years.
Irish people do not seem to understand that children are human beings in their own right and of equal value to adults. A few years ago a father who was prosecuted for abusing his children said in his defence “sure they were only kids”. This just about sums up the mindset at the core of how Irish society thinks about children generally. Sure they’re only kids, not real people yet, meaning not real people until they are adults. This mindset is based on the principles described in the 1890 book Might is Right, which rejects ideas of human rights and argues that only strength or physical might can establish moral rights. Corporal punishment teaches children that might is right and that’s about all it does teach.
The UN Universal Periodic Review, published in 2011, urges Ireland to prohibit all corporal punishment within the family and they want a response from Government no later than March 2012. The UN Committee against Torture is "gravely concerned" that such punishment is still lawful in the family home. The 2010 annual report from the Ombudsman for Children's Office notes that Ireland has "a long way to go in developing a strong culture of respect for children's rights". We are turning a deaf ear to all these exhortations just as we ignored the plight of children in institutions. What is wrong with us? First, Ireland is a patriarchal society and secondly, the Catholic Church preaches that children are born bad and must be trained to be good.
When the Referendum on children is held this year people will be coming out of the woodwork claiming parents have a right to chastise their child in whatever way they see fit. We will also hear apologists for corporal punishment saying, “it did me no harm”. Civil servants in three government departments – health, justice and education – have expressed concerns about the unintended consequences of enshrining the “best interests” principle into the Constitution. Putting children first means parents’ rights may come second. But is it not about time Irish law favoured children over adults? Parents also need to realise that they have more responsibilities than rights.
Ireland needs a zero tolerance approach to all corporal punishment, no matter how light. It definitely does harm and, in particular, it destroys trust between children and their parents. Children will not voluntarily co-operate with adults they do not trust. It is as simple as that.
Jacky Jones is a former regional manager of health promotion with the HSE