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EducationIn Switzerland, 300,000 children are punished by spanking
A new study from the University of Friborg shows that many children in Switzerland are still victims of corporal punishment and humiliation. A new provision in the Civil Code must counteract this parental violence.
A large number of children are spanked.
Imago
62% of parents in Switzerland say they never resort to physical violence. This is the good news from the study on violence in education, carried out by the University of Friborg among 1,605 mothers and fathers, reported by the “SonntagsZeitung”. This proportion hardly changes compared to 2022 when the same university indicated that 40% of children suffer violence from their parents.
But, on the other hand, 32,000 children are beaten with objects (like a belt), 48,000 girls and boys are punished with cold showers, some 160,000 children are slapped and 300,000 receive spankings. An even greater number of children and adolescents are insulted, insulted, humiliated or locked in their rooms for a long period of time – this was indicated by 60% of the parents surveyed.
Article of explicit law against violence
Although current Swiss law does not authorize parental violence, it does not explicitly mention its prohibition. This is why, in 2022, Parliament accepted a motion from Christine Bulliard-Marbach (Le Center/FR) and instructed the Federal Council to explicitly anchor the ban on violence in education in the Civil Code (CC ).
This new provision must stipulate that parents must educate the child without resorting to corporal punishment or other forms of degrading violence. And the cantons will have to ensure that parents and children can contact, together or separately, consultation centers when experiencing difficulties in education. “The law serves as a model and constitutes a clear signal: violence in education will not be tolerated,” writes the Federal Council on this subject.
Fight against all forms of violence
Yvonne Feri, president of the Swiss Association for the Protection of Children, believes that while current law certainly already allows the perpetrators of serious abuse of minors to be prosecuted, the new provision will make it possible to fight against all forms of violence. in education. In 2022, this same association was already pleading for violence-free education. In 2023, things do not seem to be changing.
Slaps are not just slaps
There is still a widespread attitude among us that a slap never hurt anyone, notes the “SonntagsZeitung”. “I have also heard this from time to time in Parliament, especially from the right,” comments Yvonne Feri, president of the Swiss Association for Child Protection. “If, in ten years, I slapped a child on the butt twice, it probably won’t do anything to him,” she says. But if I use spanking as a systematic method of education, then it harms him.”
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2023-10-29 18:38:00
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