In a new report, the UN Human Rights Committee has called for Britain to ban parents from smacking their children.
The Committee outlined a number of measures asking for the UK to fall in line with international treaties regarding corporal punishment and the prosecution of children.
In the report, the Committee expressed its ‘concern’ that parents are still being allowed to smack their children, unchecked by the Government and authorities.
“The Committee remains concerned that corporal punishment is still not fully outlawed in the home and certain educational and care facilities,” the section read.
They added: “It is further concerned about the existing legal defences of ‘reasonable punishment’ in England, Wales and Norther Ireland or ‘justifiable assault’ in Scotland.”
Elsewhere in the report, they criticised those provisions that have the age of criminal responsibility at 10, while children cannot actually be prosecuted until the age of 12.
