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More than 50 countries around the globe have laws that make it illegal to hit or spank children. Surprisingly, the United States and the United Kingdom are not among them, although the U.K's Scotland will soon ban justifications that allow the punishment. Currently, parents in Scotland who spank their children are able to defend their actions by using the “justifiable assault” defense. But, the new proposed law change by John Finnie, the justice spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, would ban the justification, The Guardian reports. “John Finnie’s Bill will not create a new criminal offense. It will remove the defense of ‘justifiable assault’, which is out of step with the majority of parents’ practice, children’s rights and most other countries in Europe. It will also bring clarity for families while enabling parents to continue to make their own decisions about how best to raise their children. A clear message will be sent: violence in any shape or form is not acceptable in Scotland,” according to a joint statement from Barnardo’s Scotland, Children 1st, and NSPCC Scotland. Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now In England, Wales and Northern Ireland parents are legally allowed to smack their own children, but they could face legal action if the hit is severe enough, the BBC reports. Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England, hopes Scotland’s proposed bill will spark changes across the UK. “The current legislation in England, which grants an exemption from the law on common assault to allow the physical punishment of children, is outdated. It should be updated to reflect what the vast majority of parents believe: that hitting children is wrong and that there are better and more effective ways of disciplining children and encouraging positive behavior,” Longfield told The Guardian. While the ban seems like a no-brainer for many who hope to give children the same legal protection as adults, not everyone is on board. One critic, the Reverend David Robertson of the Free Church in Scotland, believes good parents will be penalized “just for tapping their child on the hand,” he told the BBC. The proposal comes decades after Sweden became the first nation in 1979 to make it illegal to hit a child both at home and in school. In the U.S., 19 states—a majority of which are in the south—even still allow corporal punishment in school. On Oct. 18, a superintendent in Tennessee spoke out about putting an end to it in his school district, which had 270 instances of physical punishment in 2016 alone, according to the Associated Press. |
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First Daughter and Presidential Adviser Ivanka Trump may be facing criticism at home as her role in the White House is scaled back, but she has at least one fan overseas. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had warm words of praise for President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter, who she met last month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly plenary session. Ivanka, who gave a speech against human trafficking at a side event, discussed with Bishop a mentoring program for female leaders in Pacific Island nations to boost their participation in regional parliaments. Quoted in Australian media on Wednesday, Bishop described Ivanka as “one of the most delightful, thoughtful, measured, outward-looking, down-to-earth people.” Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now Ivanka Trump speaks at the Oval Office in the White House, on September 25. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested America would be “thanking god” for Ivanka Trump if she had a different surname. Joshua Roberts/Reuters "When I told Ivanka Trump about that, she embraced it immediately, said how could her foundation get involved, she could host something at the White House," Bishop said. The First Daughter’s response was so supportive that Bishop couldn’t help but noticing how stark the contrast was with her father. The president hasn’t shown any particular interest in policies supporting female leadership, in the U.S. or abroad, and defunded global health programs providing women with family planning services in his first week in office. "(She was) very conscious that the White House could really galvanise action. And I thought, 'That president produced that daughter - interesting,'" Bishop said. Ivanka intended to dedicate her position in her father’s administration to promoting women’s issues in the U.S. and abroad and in her first official foreign trip she travelled to W20 Women’s Summit in Germany, where the crowd hissed and booed after she stated her father was a “tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive.” Following a presidential trip to the Middle East in which Ivanka accompanied her father, a World Bank global fund she helped set up to support female entrepreneurship won a combined $100 million donation from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. She also recently appeared an event focusing on improving employment rates among military spouses and spearheaded efforts to improve computer skills and STEM education in schools. But Ivanka is also increasingly facing criticism, both within the White House, where aides reportedly refer to her as “princess royal” and Chief of Staff General John Kelly is trying to establish clearer role for the president’s advisers. Her decision to support the Trump administration plans to end an Obama-era policy that would have required business owners to disclose gender pay gap tarnished her image as a champion of "women who work," but she in an interview to the Financial Times that she does not publicly stand up to her father because she’s a team player and that those who expected him to abandon his core values have unrealistic expectations. Tags: vending-telemetry, cashless-vending, light-industrial-, commercial-, distribution-automation, distribution-power-line-monitoring, fault-location |