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By Matthew Eloyi
Wales on Monday made it illegal to use any form of corporal punishment on children, including smacking, punching, slapping, and shaking.
The Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act 2020 established the “smacking ban,” which marked the end of the common law defense of “reasonable punishment.”
It implies that children will be protected from attack in the same way as adults are, and that the legislation will apply to everyone, including visitors to Wales, as is the case with all Welsh laws.
If a parent or anybody else responsible for a kid while the parents are away is proven to have physically disciplined a minor in any way, they may now face criminal or civil prosecution.
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The Welsh Government has insisted that the move is about protecting children’s rights, despite claims from critics that it will criminalize parents.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said, “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.
“That right is now enshrined in Welsh law. No more grey areas. No more ‘defence of reasonable punishment’. That is all in the past.”
Wales joins more than 60 nations worldwide in legislating against the physical punishment of children.
Scotland introduced its own ban in November 2020.
