Madam, - The recent moves in Britain towards a ban on the smacking of children are a welcome development. The failure of our own State to move to outlaw this barbaric practice is disappointing. Yet it is sadly in keeping with the severe underdevelopment of Irish public policy towards children. Even within our Constitution children are accorded no overt rights and the State has as yet failed to incorporate a rights-based perspective on children into its policies in the manner enshrined by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Ireland signed in 1992. Moreover, although the Government promised in 1998 that an Ombudsman for children would be introduced, this Ombudsman has as yet failed to materialise.
A move by Ireland to outlaw the smacking of children would be a step on the journey towards an era of respect and positive rights for children. As Marie Murray pointed out in her article (July 7th), disciplining children by smacking is psychologically harmful and "the most primitive form of parenting". It is high time Irish legislation recognised that hitting a child is no different to hitting an adult - it is assault. It is not long ago that it was legally and culturally acceptable for a husband to hit his wife.
Society has moved on. It is only a matter of time before society matures enough to universally accept that a parent hitting his child is as unacceptable as a husband hitting his wife.
I can only hope that Ireland will soon shake off its rusted shackles of conservatism and begin to see children for what they are - people with basic human rights to respect and dignity. - Yours, etc.,
LOUISE CAFFREY, Kindlestown Road, Delgany, Co Wicklow.