Prague - Several years will have to pass before hitting children with a wooden stirring spoon or a belt, a traditional Czech punishment of naughty children, becomes illegal. A law that will save children from corporal punishment will not be discussed until the end of the year.
Human rights minister Džamila Stehlíková brought this issue up already in March 2008.
At the same time, international organizations pressure on European countries to outlaw physical punishment, while the Council of Europe launched a new campaign "Raise your hands against smacking" in Zagreb. "The European Convention on Human Rights is for everyone and there is no footnote in it which says that the human rights are for adults only," said the Council of Europe
Deputy Secretary General Maud de Boer-Buquicchio at the launching ceremony.
Hitting illegal in 18 countries
"We discussed this issue a month ago at the Government Council for Human Rights. It was a long and passionate debate. The council put me in charge of organizing a campaign and conducting a research about the situation in other countries," Stehlíková told Aktuálně.cz.
The proposal of the law will have to be discussed by the Government Council for Human Rights, and then it will have to make it through the objecting procedure. Only after that it will be presented to Czech parliament.
Similar law is valid in 18 out of 47 member states of the European Union. The Council wants the rest of the countries to adopt it by the end of 2009. Most likely, the Czech Republic will not meet this deadline.
Parents will not be punished
Eighty percent of Czechs consider smacking acceptable. For this purpose parents most often use wooden stirring spoons and dog leashes.
Minister Stehlíková sees it as a traditional form of punishment but she hopes that the law will change the way the society thinks and will promote the upbringing of children without using physical force.
"It will not be a restrictive measurement; we do not intend to criminalize parents. It is more about providing information about different possibilities of bringing children up without physical punishment," Stehlíková explains.
Germans smack less
She is inspired mainly by a similar initiative in Germany. Parents who beat their children do not face any sanctions there but local governments have to provide them information about upbringing without violence.
Before the law was enforced, 90 percent of German families used corporal punishment. A research from 2003 showed that the number of punishing parents declined to 40 or 50 percent.
The campaign in the Czech Republic should focus on spreading awareness among parents, teachers and pediatricians like in Germany.
"We want to show to parents that there are other ways than corporal punishment. We also want people to know that there are advisors available for them," Stehlíková explains the campaign that is to start at the beginning of 2009.
For now, Stehlíková has several public debates planned where she wants to learn about the public opinion for the campaign.
Hitters and the others
The global initiative End All Corporal Punishment also informs that the Czech Republic is one of the few developed countries that did not make corporal punishment at schools illegal.
Based on the research the corporal punishment at Czech schools was not made illegal by law but it is not listed as a form of recommended measurements by the ministry of education.
******************
Corporal punishment at home is besides the Czech Republic still lawful in countries: Andorra, Belgium, Estonia, France, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Macedonia, Turkey and UK (with strict limitations).
European countries have already outlawed corporal punishment: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands (2007), Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain (2007), Sweden and Ukraine.
