By Suki Wan, Chair, Scottish Youth Parliament
AT the SNP’s Spring Conference First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that the Government wants Scotland to “meet the UN’s gold standard on children’s rights” within the next two years, yet we are still solving a basic conundrum. The UK is one of only six EU countries that continues to permit violence upon children in the home. Despite numerous conversations about children’s rights and reducing violence, children’s right to be protected from violence is still not guaranteed.
MSP John Finnie’s Children (Equal Protection from Assault) Bill, now nearing the end of its stage 1 scrutiny in the Parliament, would address this. The Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee has heard a broad consensus of support for the bill – 86 per cent of witnesses who gave oral evidence back reform. Yet the media continues to be full of debate and argument, which, until now, has paid little attention to the voices of children and young people.
Children and young people’s support for the bill is clear. In the Scottish Youth Parliament’s Lead the Way Manifesto, of 72,744 responses from 12-25 year olds, 82 per cent agreed that “all physical assault against children should be illegal” with only six per cent disagreeing and 12 per cent abstaining.
Much of the media debate has framed the issue in a lighter way, referring to “smacking”. In reality we are debating if the physical assault of children and young people can continue to be justified in Scots Law. Arguments from opposers to the Bill focus on parents’ right to continue hitting their children, and create scaremongering around the potential to criminalise parents who do.
There is no evidence from any country that has changed their laws to show parents are more likely to be criminalised. There is overwhelming evidence that physical violence inflicted on children can result in long-term damage in future life. The Equal Protection Bill will lead to improvements in the health and wellbeing of children and young people. Benefits range from improvements in mental health, better educational attainment, a reduction in aggression and better family relationships.
It’s simple, children live better lives without physical punishment. Don’t want to be criminalised? Don’t hit your children.
Last week on Twitter, one young person referred to Mr Finnie as a legend for bringing forward this bill. He’s right.
The thousands of young people who want all forms of physical punishment to be illegal aren’t thinking of ourselves. After all, we’re not the ones being hit – that’s children between the ages of two and four. We’re thinking of the Scotland we want the next generation to grow up in, one that treats an act of violence inflicted on a child the same way as we would for an adult.
Last year, Scotland celebrated the Year of Young People. The Scottish Government is about to start consulting on the on incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots Law. There is a huge appetite for making children’s rights a reality in Scotland, but we cannot claim to be a leader in children’s rights if we can’t get the basics right.
The legacy of the Year of Young People should be one in which children and young people’s voices are at the very core of issues affecting them. On the Equal Protection Bill, our voices are clear. Young people are looking to every MSP to support this Bill, to stand up for the future Scotland we want to see, to be a legend and #StopKidsBeingHit.
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