SCOTLAND'S Children's Commissioner has backed calls for new legislation to ban smacking in Scotland.
The move follows calls by children's charities for a ban on smacking youngsters to be introduced north of the Border.
The Children are Unbeatable coalition, which includes Children 1st and Aberlour Child Care Trust, said young people should have the same protection from assault as adults.
They want the move to be included in the new Children's Bill, which is currently out for consultation.
Yesterday, commissioner Tam Baillie said: "If Scotland really has got aspirations to be the best country in the world to bring up children, then we need to give them the same protection against violence as we give to adults. The law currently allows 'justifiable assault' and this is not acceptable."
In 2002, the United Nations' Committee on the Rights of the Child said it "deeply regrets that the (UK) persists in retaining the defence of 'reasonable chastisement'".
A year later, the Scottish Parliament voted to restrict the scope of "reasonable chastisement" by setting out criteria for determining whether an assault on a child was "justifiable".
However, attempts to institute an outright ban were dropped by the Labour/LibDem executive.
Currently, foster carers, teachers and others who work with children are prohibited from using physical punishment such as smacking, but parents are not.
A spokeswoman for Children 1st said: "The law still allows children to be hit or physically punished, which does not give them the same protection from assault as it gives to adults. In fact, it affords children less protection than any other group.
"Scotland is coming under increasing international criticism for our failure to give children equal protection. The UK is now one of only four countries in Europe not to have banned physical punishment.
"Legislation can be a powerful tool in changing attitudes and behaviours in our society, as we have seen from drink driving and the public smoking bans."
However, the Scottish Parent Teacher Council has argued there is no case for a law to criminalise parents.
The Scottish Government said a consultation on proposals for the Children and Young People's Bill is currently under way. They said the bill would not go through Parliament until some unspecified time in the new year.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We have no plans to change the law on smacking. It is already illegal to punish children by shaking or hitting them with an implement and there are no proposals in the consultation to change this."
Welsh Assembly members have voted in favour of a smacking ban, although ministers have ruled out such a move in the current term.
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