Family group calls on Durkan to withdraw biased consultation paper

22 November 2001

Families First has today called on Northern Ireland Minister of Finance and Personnel, Mark Durkan, to withdraw the Office of Law Reform's consultation paper on the physical punishment of children.

Norman Wells, a spokesman for the family advocacy group said, "This document claims it doesn't take sides, but it is very much slanted against the freedom of parents to use even the mildest form of physical correction on children in Northern Ireland."

The consultation document was published in September and the period of consultation was due to run until the end of January 2002, but the pro-family group believes that the paper is so flawed that it should be withdrawn immediately and completely rewritten.

"The paper is full of quite serious factual inaccuracies," Mr Wells said. "Some of them give the impression that more countries have passed laws against smacking than really have. Others involve exaggerated claims made about European Court cases. The overall message is that smacking is a bad thing and has to go. The only question is whether we go right ahead now and criminalise parents who smack their children or take a staged approach."

Mr Wells continued, "This is the kind of approach we have come to expect from anti-smacking lobby groups. But it is not what you would expect from a government agency embarking on a public consultation with far-reaching implications for every family in Northern Ireland. The document is far too one-sided to provide a basis for the kind of informed discussion Mr Durkan says he wants."

The Office of Law Reform has based its review of research findings on two brief studies by writers committed to imposing their own philosophy of bringing up children on every family in the country by force of law. The bibliography contains no reference to any of the more objective research that has been undertaken.

Families First is persuaded that the people of Northern Ireland deserve better than this. They should be entitled to an accurate, fair, unbiased, objective presentation of the facts.

Notes for editors

1. The consultation exercise follows on from a case concerning a 9 year-old boy who had been physically punished by his stepfather-to-be with a garden cane "applied with considerable force on more than one occasion". A jury in England considered the punishment to be "moderate and reasonable" taking all the circumstances into account, but the European Court of Human Rights ruled that UK law had failed to protect the boy from "inhuman and degrading treatment" in contravention of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (<EM>A v UK</EM>, 1998).

2. During the spring of 2000, consultations papers were published in other parts of the UK and responses invited from the public. In September 2001, the Scottish Executive announced its proposals to legislate against all physical correction of children under the age of 3 and the use of any object in the discipline of children. However, earlier this month the government at Westminster announced that it considered that the present law was adequate to protect children from harm. It is therefore not proposing to change the law in England and Wales.

3. The consultation paper for Northern Ireland is of a very different character from the documents published in other parts of the UK. The document prepared by the Office of Law Reform is far more ideological in its tone and distinctly opposed to the use of physical correction by parents. However, it does not enter into any discussion of the consequences for children and families if the law were to forbid the use of physical correction. Neither does it consider the implications of such legislation for religious liberties.

Copyright © 2001-2007 Families First. All rights reserved.