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	A rights watchdog has found the Republic of Ireland violated a European charter by not banning all corporal punishment, including smacking at home.</p>
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	Corporal punishment was banned in Irish schools in 1982 and, by 1996, it was a criminal offence to hit schoolchildren.</p>
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	However, the Republic of Ireland is one of the few European countries that does not ban physical punishment at home.</p>
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	The&nbsp;European Committee of Social Rights&nbsp;made its ruling after a formal complaint from a UK-based charity.</p>
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	The Association for the Protection of All Children (Approach) lodged its complaint in February 2013 to the committee, which is part of the 47-nation Council of Europe.</p>
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	&#39;Reasonable chastisement&#39;</p>
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	The charity alleged that the Republic of Ireland has taken &quot;no effective action&quot; to remedy violation of Article 17 (the right of mothers and children to social and economic protection) of the European Social Charter by prohibiting all corporal punishment and other &quot;cruel or degrading forms of punishment of children&quot;.</p>
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	<a href="http://coe-ngo.org/ingo/association-protection-all-children-ltd">Approach</a>&nbsp;said the existence, under Irish Common Law, of the defence of reasonable chastisement &quot;allows parents and some other adults to assault children with impunity&quot;.</p>
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	In its<a href="http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/socialcharter/NewsCOEPortal/CC93Merits_en.asp">&nbsp;decision, published on Wednesday morning</a>, the European Committee of Social Rights said none of the Irish legislation referred to it expressly banned &quot;all forms of corporal punishment of children that is likely to affect their physical integrity, dignity, development or psychological well-being&quot;.</p>
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	The committee concluded unanimously that Irish domestic law violates Article 17 of the European Social Charter.</p>
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	Corporal punishment is banned in Irish schools and some care settings under the Children Act of 2001, but it is still not explicitly banned in the home.</p>
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	The United Nations and other organisations that protect children, including the Children&#39;s Rights Alliance, Barnardos and the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) have been campaigning for some years to change the law on smacking.</p>
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	Legal experts</p>
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	The ISPCC said on its website that it believed &quot;comprehensive, quality support and education of parents is essential in actively discouraging slapping and promoting positive, non-violent forms of discipline&quot;.</p>
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	&quot;A legal ban would serve the purpose of removing slapping as an option for parents and would steer and support parents to find alternative disciplinary methods,&quot; it said.</p>
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	The European Social Charter is a legally-binding social and economic counterpart to the European Convention on Human Rights. The Republic of Ireland is a signatory to the charter.</p>
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	The European Committee of Social Rights is made up of independent legal experts who assess whether countries are in compliance with their commitments under the charter.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32887584">http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32887584</a></p>
