30th April 2010
Council of Europe Pressures UK to Remove Parental Authority
Mark Hanson
In a move which has been widely criticized, the Council of Europe has urged the UK to prohibit the rights of parents to discipline their own children.
Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, said “Prohibiting all corporal punishment is a legal imperative and I hope the United Kingdom will take that essential step urgently.”
She pointed out that the problem facing Britain is the British regard for the "authority of parents".
The urged-for ban would further undermine the ability of persons of responsibility to carry out disciplinary measures against unruly youngsters, and would be a total ban on smacking, equating it with assault.
The principle that parents should have the freedom to carry out physical discipline is well-grounded in British tradition and in Biblical teaching, yet the Council of Europe, set up to oversee human rights in participating nations, holds that the "absolute rights" are based on the European Convention of Human Rights, rather than any traditional or Biblical basis.
It should be noted that the CoE is not actually a part of the EU, and in fact was set up to ensure that the traditional tenets of free democracy found in the UK should be legally preserved throughout Europe following the totalitarian nightmares of much of Europe in the 1930s and 40s.
The European Court of Human Rights is usually a friend to the people of Europe and the UK, in that it has upheld British standards of liberty in the face of New Labour's disregard for British traditions and constitutional safeguards. But this new development shows the dangers of having a set of principles removed from the God-centred standards that should underpin them.
In the UK, moves already undertaken have made it possible for persons of authority, including parents, to be arrested and harassed for undertaking physical discipline, although none of the major parties supports a blanket ban.
