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UN praises Poland's ban on smacking children

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 10.01.2014 09:30
The United Nations' campaign against corporal punishment has mentioned Poland as an example of "good practice" after it banned parents smacking children three and half years ago.

photo
photo - flickr.com / lordbart

The just-released UN's Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children report is based on a global study of violence against children carried out by the UN Secretary General.

Poland is mentioned in the report, alongside Sweden, Austria, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands, as an example of good practice for a 2010 ban on smacking children.

The law, signed by President Bronislaw Komorowski on 18 June 2010 against smacking says that "persons exercising parental care, care or alternative care over a minor are forbidden to use corporal punishment, inflict psychological suffering and use any other forms of child humiliation.”

Poland first banned corporal punishment against children in schools as far back as 1783, though the country disappeared from the map of Europe soon afterwords, when it was occupied by Prussian, Russian and Austrian empires.

Sweden was the first to ban corporal punishment at home in 1979. (pg)

tags: Children
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