France bans parents from spanking children

France has banned spanking children.  A new law went into effect at the start of the year.

The French Parliament approved the no spanking policy last month.  It came after a European human rights body warned France that it wasn't doing enough to prevent spanking and other kinds of corporal punishment of children.

In 2015, the Council of Europe said France was violating the European social charter because French law doesn't prohibit parents and others from corporal punishment of children in a "sufficiently clear, binding and precise manner."

While now illegal, the new law does not dictate what any punishment would be for violators.

The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children has worked to promote universal prohibition and elimination of corporal punishment.  It says 51 countries now prohiti spanking, up from 16 a decade ago.  It says Mongolia, Paraguay and Slovenia banned all corporal punishment last year.

England is now one of the few countries in Europe that gives parents the right to strike their children as a legal form of discipline.