GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

Minister in Wales (Huw Irranca-Davies) when he said: “Physically punishing a

child is outdated, and is no longer acceptable in a modern, progressive Wales.

This is why we are committed to removing the defence of reasonable

punishment, which reinforces our longstanding commitment to children’s rights,

based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

This conference further notes that the current UK Government has not

expressed any intention to take similar steps so as to give children in England

the same protection as those planned in Wales.

This conference calls upon the UK Government to:

• affirm its support for the United Nations Convention on the

Rights of the Child (of which it is a signatory)

• acknowledge that physical punishment can have negative long

term effects on a child’s development (and is ineffective as a

punishment)

• express its intention to draft proposals for the removal of the

defence of “reasonable punishment” in criminal law regarding the

use of corporal punishment of children.

She said: Angela Pratten from the Association of Educational Psychologists,

the AEP. Brothers and sisters, this BGCM calls on the UK Government to

confirm its support for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and draft

proposals which will ban all corporal punishment and remove the defence of

“reasonable punishment” in criminal law. In the UK corporal punishment was

banned in state schools in1986 and in private schools in 2003, but it is still

allowed in the home. Violence towards children is never justifiable, yet our

current laws still permit it as a form of corporal punishment or corporal

discipline, as it is called by the lobby which still continues to advocate smacking

children.

Currently, a parent or carer can within the law smack or hit and hurt a child as

long as it is deemed to be reasonable. Is it right that our laws protect adults

from assault, but do not protect our children? We have all heard people say

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