MEPs adopted an amendment banning the use of physical violence against children.
The National Assembly voted for the end of the spanking. On the night of Friday to Saturday, the deputies have effect adopted in first reading an amendment to the “equality and citizenship” bill which provides for supplementing the definition of parental authority. If this text is definitively voted, article 371-1 will specify that the education of children excludes “any cruel, degrading and humiliating treatment, including any recourse to bodily violence”.
On the initiative of 3 elected officials from the left, this amendment does not speak of “corporal punishment”. The too direct allusion to slapping and spanking did not create consensus. The signatories then chose the term “bodily violence” against children to bring together Parliament.
Roll back educational violence
For defenders of education without corporal punishment, this amendment, written into the Civil Code, is a major step forward. Condemned several times by the Council of Europe or the United Nations, France had never yet explicitly prohibited their use. She preferred to demonstrate pedagogy to parents by explaining the psychological and physical consequences of slaps, spankings or other punishments in children.
The intrusion into the private sphere was also an undeniable obstacle. Others point to the impossibility of verifying that French parents apply the law. Therefore, no new penal sanction can be applied. Only proven facts of mistreatment can be prosecuted and punished. The provision “sets out a clear principle, which is intended to be repeated to fathers and mothers, and to permeate their future behavior,” says the text. For the 3 signatories, all initiatives to reduce educational violence are necessary and useful.
MPs will vote on the entire bill on Wednesday after more than 42 hours of debate. Then come the senators who will then be free to revert or not to this left-wing amendment. The solemn vote is expected to take place in November.
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