Justice Ministry wants to enshrine inadmissibility of hitting children in law

The Ministry of Justice plans to propose enshrining the unacceptability of physically punishing children in the country's Civil Code, Deputy Minister Karel Dvořák stated on Thursday at a press conference that was presenting the Childhood Without Violence initiative. The new legislation will not criminalise parents who use corporal punishment or introduce penalties for doing so, but will rather be of a declaratory nature, expressing the societal value that beating children is unacceptable and that it is more appropriate to use other educational means.

Mr Dvořák pointed out that the Czech Republic is one of the last countries in the European Union where a similar regulation has not yet been enacted, and that laws that consider corporal punishment an appropriate educational tool are not in accordance with the Czech Republic's international obligations, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.