Removing the “reasonable punishment” defence and prohibiting corporal punishment of children can help to reduce family violence, says Andrew Rowland In England and Northern Ireland, we have a key opportunity to give children the equal protection from assault that they need, deserve, and are entitled to as a matter of international children’s rights law. A new Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) report, “Equal protection from assault in England and Northern Ireland,” sets out the case for the legislative change to remove the “reasonable punishment” defence and to prohibit all physical punishment of children.1 Changing the law around physical punishment could help protect children against abuse and could protect and promote their health, wellbeing, and early development. Wales, Scotland, and over 60 other states around the world have already taken the necessary steps to prohibit physical punishment (as far back as 1979 in Sweden’s case). Yet in England and Northern Ireland the laws around physical punishment as they stand are unjust and dangerously vague. They create a grey area in which some forms of physical punishment may be lawful and some are …

中文翻译：

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需要明确法律来停止对儿童的体罚

安德鲁·罗兰说，取消“合理惩罚”辩护并禁止对儿童进行体罚有助于减少家庭暴力。在英格兰和北爱尔兰，我们有一个关键的机会，为儿童提供他们需要、应得和正在遭受的平等保护，使其免受攻击。根据国际儿童权利法，有权享有这一权利。皇家儿科和儿童健康学院 (RCPCH) 的一份新报告《英格兰和北爱尔兰平等保护免遭攻击》阐述了立法改革的理由，以取消“合理惩罚”辩护并禁止对儿童的所有体罚.1 改变有关体罚的法律可以帮助保护儿童免受虐待，并可以保护和促进他们的健康、福祉和早期发展。威尔士、苏格兰和世界各地其他 60 多个州已经采取必要措施禁止体罚（瑞典的情况早在 1979 年就已发生）。然而，在英格兰和北爱尔兰，现行有关体罚的法律是不公正的，而且模糊得危险。他们创造了一个灰色地带，其中某些形式的体罚可能是合法的，而另一些则是......