Upholding the Dignity and Best Interest of Children: International Law and the Corporal Punishment of Children
2010; Duke University School of Law; Volume: 73; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1945-2322
Autores Tópico(s)Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
ResumoI INTRODUCTION--A PRE-HISTORY Early legal statements are conspicuously silent on children's rights: Ten Commandments, arguably most influential of all legal codes, contains clear normative pronouncement on parent-child relations--Honor, thy father and thy mother. (1) But commandment is in terms of respect for parents, and it is silent on obligations of parents to love and nurture their (2) Is it then surprising that well into early modern times children were being prosecuted in England for abusing parents, but that prosecutions of parents for beating children appear not to have taken place? (3) One of earliest recognitions of children's rights is found in Massachusetts Body of Liberties of 1641. Parents are told not to choose their children's mates and not to use unnatural severity against their (4) Children, furthermore, are given free liberty to complain to Authorities for redress. (5) But this is also law that prescribes death penalty for children over sixteen who disobey their parents. (6) There is no evidence that children did in fact successfully litigate against their parents, nor is there any evidence that any children were executed. (7) This recognition of children's rights nevertheless remains interesting in showing, as it does, that 370 years ago, protection of children went hand-in-hand with adding power of state to parental authority. The two centuries that followed are hardly notable for their propagation of rights of The Victorian novel is replete with floggings of children: David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre, The Way of All Flesh--the litany is almost endless. Indeed, graphic descriptions of floggings permeate novels well into twentieth century: D.H Lawrence's The Rainbow, Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley, Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Avonlea, and popular Billy Bunter stories. (8) The nineteenth century, not surprisingly, also saw birth of child-saving movement, spawning institutions like juvenile court. (9) Child-protection legislation also came about, commonly in English-speaking world, after campaign for its passage in England and after similar campaign to protect domestic animals. (10) Yet cruelty remained social construct, and founders of societies to protect children from abuse still vigorously defended corporal chastisement. Thus, one of founders of New York Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC), Henry Bergh, was prepared to uphold a good wholesome flogging as appropriate for disobedient children. (11) Others began to advocate children's rights and to voice some discomfort with corporal chastisement, as well. (12) Thus in 1892 American children's novelist Kate Douglas Wiggin thought it likely that of reason would have to replace the rod of birch. (13) In Sweden, Ellen Key in The Century of Child looked forward to increasing limitations on rights of parents over children, and to end of corporal punishment. (14) She described such punishment as humiliating for him who gives it as for him who receives it. (15) She looked forward to time when children would be treated as equals and be given the same consideration, same kind confidence which is shown to adults. (16) But most significant of these early thinkers was Janusz Korczak, best known today as man who voluntarily accompanied 200 children on their journey to Treblinka, where he and they were duly slaughtered. (17) His How to Love Child and The Right of Child to Respect contain Convention on Rights of Child so far ahead of its time--formulated as it was in 1910s--that it is not surprising world barely noticed. (18) Even today Korczak's writings have not been fully translated into English. (19) Of many rights Korczak accorded children was right to government that protects them from neglect, cruelty, and any exploitation of any kind. …
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