France: MPs approve bill to ban smacking of children
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French MPs have approved legislation which will make it illegal for parents to smack their children, but without providing for any criminal sanction against them.
The draft bill would modify the French civil code to assert the right of children to “an education without violence”.
The revised code will say that “holders of parental authority can not use humiliating means such as physical and verbal violence, corporal punishment or chastisement, or mental suffering”.
The bill has been brought to France’s National Assembly by Maud Petit, an MP with the centrist MoDem party.
Ms Petit said the main aim of the bill was to “draw everyone’s attention to this issue”. It will also require the French government to publish a report setting out what resources are necessary to raise awareness of the new law.
The bill was approved by the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, on Friday with 51 votes in favour, one against and three abstentions. It will now proceed to the Senate.
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