Thanks to the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Council of Europe’s strong human rights mechanisms, prohibition of all corporal punishment of children is now accelerating across Europe.

Parliamentary Assembly recommendation
On 24 June 2004 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a detailed recommendation, with overwhelming support. This notes the established human rights standards, in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Social Charter, which require prohibition of all corporal punishment: The recommendation called for a "coordinated and concerted campaign in all the member states for the total abolition of corporal punishment of children"

Response of the Committee of Ministers
In April 2005 the Committee of Ministers, the executive authority of the 46 member state Council of Europe, responded to this recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly to make Europe a corporal punishment free zone for children. It agreed with the Assembly on the need to begin in all member states "a coordinated and concerted campaign for the abolition of all violence against children" and noted that the European Committee of Social Rights has concluded that the European Social Charter "requires a prohibition in legislation against any forms of violence against children".

Ruling of the Committee of Ministers
In June 2005, the Council of Europe delivered a ruling on the human rights of children that will intensify pressure on the British government to introduce legislation banning smacking in the home.   A decision by the European Committee of Social Rights upheld complaints against corporal punishment in Ireland, Greece and Belgium, that children in the three countries lack adequate protection from assault by parents, who can use the defence of "reasonable chastisement" to justify corporal punishment. The committee has already criticised nine European countries including France and Spain for failure to ban corporal punishment.

The Committee confirmed supreme court judgments in Italy and Portugal which prohibited corporal punishment, increasing the number of countries to introduce a ban to 16 of the 46 member states.

Peter Clarke, the Children's Commissioner for Wales and president of the European Network of Children's Ombudspeople, said: "These decisions are a big step towards fulfilling the right of all Europe's children to equal protection from being hit. They underline the human rights obligations of states in the region - including the UK - to prohibit all corporal punishment in the family."

Children and corporal punishment: "The right not to be hit, also a children’s right"
The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, published an issue paper on corporal punishment and children in June 2006.  Read the full issue paper

The Committee on the Rights of the Child ended its 42nd session on 2 June 2006 and adopted a new General Comment (number 8) on The right of the child to protection from corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment.

Following its two General Discussion Days on violence against children, held in 2000 and 2001, the Committee resolved to issue a series of General Comments concerning eliminating violence against children, of which General Comment 8 is the first.

Proposals to ban corporal punishment in Britain were defeated in the House of Commons in November 2004, despite a revolt by 47 Labour MPs. The government backed a compromise, allowing parents to inflict "reasonable chastisement" as long as it did not leave visible marks.