By Patrick McGinnity, County
|
Patrick McGinnity often writes comments on articles concerning contemporary societal issues in Northern Ireland. He also writes letters to the Editors of several Irish newspapers. This piece was published on July 24, 2007 as
a letter to the Editor at The Irish Daily Mail under the title "Parents'
right to smack". It is reproduced here with the
kind consent
of the author. |
Dear Sir / Madam,
Norah O'Grady (Mail, July 16th) wisely
recognises that "An outright ban on smacking children - as called for by
Children's Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly - would be utterly counterproductive".
She warns that we could expect to see "a lot of
good parents dragged before the courts".
Jim O'Leary (July 17th) takes the opposite view, citing the example
of Sweden where they have had an outright ban on corporal punishment since the
Seventies. He says "compared with Ireland, Sweden is paradise on
earth".
Mr O'Leary is very much mistaken. Ever since the
emergence of The Nordic Committee for Human Rights (NCHR) in 1996, a very
disturbing story has begun to come out of Sweden. Consisting of lawyers,
doctors, teachers and academics, The NCHR has shown how the last Swedish
government waged war on the private family in favour of the state-controlled
family.
This government, which was replaced in October 2006, succeeded in divesting
many Swedish parents of their power and transferring it to the state, under the
guise of acting in the child's "best interests".
The NCHR claims thousands of Swedish children have been taken away
from their parents and placed in foster homes, despite Sweden having no
real poverty and very few real social problems. More information can be found on
the NCHR website.
The anti-smacking law was only one of a number of weapons the previous
Swedish government used to criminalize parents. The NCHR claims that since the anti- smacking bill became law
in Sweden, thousands of parents have been reported, accused, arrested by
police, detained, tried in courts and sentenced to fines or imprisonment.
REFERENCES:
At this weblink http://www.nzcpd.com there
is an opinion piece by Ruby Harrold-Claesson, Gothenburg, Sweden. Ms
Harrold-Claesson is an attorney-at-law and President of the Nordic Committee
for Human Rights. The Opinion piece is entitled "The Smacking Ban: A dangerous law" and was written on
24th
March 07.
This is the website of the NCHR: http://www.nkmr.org/english/index.htm
At this weblink http://www.nzcpd.com there is an article by
former New Zealand MP Muriel Newman entitled "The Smacking Bill a Con Job".
Sinister
agenda behind children’s rights proposal
By Patrick McGinnity
The Smacking Bill a Con Job
By Muriel Newman
The
Smacking Ban: A dangerous law
By Ruby Harrold-Claesson
The Folly of
Sweden's state controlled families
By Siv Westerberg