In a decision published last week, the Council of Europe’s European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) has found that the corporal punishment of children is not prohibited in a sufficiently clear, binding and precise manner under Belgian legislation or case-law.

The Committee, responsible for monitoring the application of the European Social Charter, also points out that it has repeatedly found that the situation was not in conformity with Article 17 of the Charter (Conclusions 2011).

 Violence against children, including corporal punishment, is a major abuse of their human rights, and equal protection under the law must be guaranteed to them. The Council of Europe has been working to see corporal punishment of children outlawed in each of its 47 member countries, and positive parenting programmes set up by governments to encourage parents to make the family violence-free.

Complaints were lodged with the Council of Europe in February 2013 against seven member countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Slovenia) by an INGO holding participatory status with the Council of Europe, the Association for the Protection of All Children (APPROACH), because of “the lack of explicit and effective prohibition of all corporal punishment of children, in the family, schools and other settings”.

 The European Social Charter, the counterpart to the European Convention on Human Rights in the field of social and economic rights, is a legally binding international treaty which States undertake to comply with upon ratification. Belgium ratified the revised Charter in March 2004.