THE European Commission of Human Rights agreed yesterday to take up the case of a 12 year old boy seeking to overturn British laws allowing his parents to smack him.
The decision is the first step towards a possible ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which has the power to ban any type of beating of children if it agrees with the complaint. Such a ruling would bring Britain into line with other European nations.
The boy's lawyers are contesting British laws sanctioning "reasonable chastisement" of children after he was beaten with a cane by his stepfather when he was nine for trying to stab his younger brother with a kitchen knife. A court acquitted his step father of charges of assault.
His natural father, with whom the boy now lives, is backing the child in the case. But his mother has defended her right to punish her son, saying he had been "totally out of control" and had "run riot" since the age of two.
Caning and other forms of corporal punishment were outlawed in British schools some years ago but courts have frequently acquitted parents who have admitted using canes, belts and electric flexes to beat children at home.
British ministers last night vowed to "vigorously defend" smacking, but children's rights campaigners welcomed the move, claiming it could lead to a ruling limiting parents' right to discipline children by beating them.
The British Health Secretary, Mr Stephen Dorrell said. "This is only a decision on the admissibility of the complaint. English law coincides with common sense. Parents are allowed to use corporal punishment but only to the extent of reasonable chastisement."
Mr John Rea Price, director of the National Children's Bureau, said. "The logical and morally right response is for the government to declare illegal all forms of punishment which would, if done to an adult, constitute an assault."