Just 24 hours after the publication of a report that showed hundreds of girls may have been sexually exploited in Britain after authorities repeatedly failed to tackle grooming gangs responsible for "indescribably awful" abuse, a British group of charities has taken France to task over parents smacking their children.
France rebuked for allowing children to be smacked http://t.co/j6KWrCSmJ3 pic.twitter.com/0jTRlvlsTe
— FRANCE 24 (@FRANCE24) March 4, 2015
As many as 373 children have been identified as potential victims in Oxfordshire, England over 16 years, according to a highly-critical serious case review which revealed a catalogue of failings by authorities, which meant the scale of the child sexual exploitation in the county was not recognised and opportunities to tackle it were missed.
Despite this, a British-based coalition of charities, the Association for the Protection of All Children (Approach), launched an official complaint to the Council of Europe in January 2013, over France's "lack of explicit and effective prohibition of all corporal punishment of children, in the family, schools and other settings".
France has no law specifically banning the smacking of children, which is a requirement of the European Social Charter.
It's just smacking,right! Wrong! https://t.co/9gjiufXN5l Today's #CoE #France ruling http://t.co/jL0zmzp8KO & #video https://t.co/J938LRokd2
— Council of Europe (@coe) March 4, 2015
In a decision published on March 4, the eCouncil of Europ's European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) found that the corporal punishment of children is not prohibited in a sufficiently clear, binding and precise manner under French law or case-law.
Decades of Abuse of British Children
The decision to rebuke France comes a day after the latest in a string of child abuse cases was revealed in Britain, which has seen a huge number of cases dating back decades.
Among the most notorious was the North Wales child abuse scandal, leading to a three-year, £13 million investigation into the physical and sexual abuse of children in care homes in the counties of Clwyd and Gwynedd, in North Wales, including the Bryn Estyn children's home at Wrexham, between 1974 and 1990.
It follows the revelations of widespread child sex exploitation over many years in Rotherham, which prompted Cameron to say:
"I've just spent half an hour with some of the survivors of abuse in Rotherham and these are stories that are going to stay with me forever. They are absolutely horrific, what has happened."
The Council of Europe decision on the French smacking decision is likely to prove contentious, as a 2007 survey by the Paris-based Union of Families in Europe found that 87 percent of French parents admitted to having smacked their children at least once. Another poll in 2009 poll found that 82 percent of French people are against a ban on smacking.
