Wales has become the second UK nation to outlaw the physical punishment of children.

Anyone who smacks, hits, slaps or shakes a child while responsible for them could now face criminal charges in a move named ‘historic’.

It means youngsters will get the same protection from assault as adults and includes those visiting the country.

Parents and others could be charged with offences such as actual bodily harm, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Beforehand, smacking a child was unlawful, but allowed as long as it was seen as a ‘reasonable punishment’ – which is still the case in England and Northern Ireland.

Scotland joined around 60 other countries in banning physical punishment in November 2020.

Critics have argued the new law will criminalise parents, but First minister Mark Drakeford insisted ‘there is no place for physical punishment in a modern Wales’.

‘The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child makes it clear that children have the right to be protected from harm and from being hurt and this includes physical punishment’, he said.

‘That right is now enshrined in Welsh law. No more grey areas. No more “defence of reasonable punishment”. That is all in the past.’
The circumstances of each case were taken into account when using the previous common law defence of ‘reasonable punishment’.

This may have included the age of the child and the nature of the contact, whether the punishment left a red mark or was carried out with a fist or implement such as a cane or belt.

Viv Laing, from NSPCC Cymru Wales, has said: ‘Until now, children were the only group in our society who it was acceptable to strike in certain circumstances.

‘We don’t allow the physical punishment of adults or animals, so it is absurd that we have for so long with children. NSPCC Cymru/Wales has long been clear on this, and now, at last, the law is too.’

Source: https://metro.co.uk/2022/03/21/wales-introduces-ban-on-smacking-children-16311334/?ito=newsnow-feed

Make una also build more prisons.

Such law can never work in nigeria
Obiano wife can testify

Very good, 10 years for corporal punishers..Children beaters should rott in jail.

These people should take note