2023-09-07 15:57:00
To date, twenty-three Member States of the European Union have adopted legislative frameworks aimed at expressly prohibiting corporal punishment and any other form of degrading treatment of children. Belgium is not one of them.
In our country, no text has yet been adopted to comply with international legal instruments such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Belgian State has also been called to order on several occasions, in particular by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Human Rights Council, without result.
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For its part, the government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation has decided to act. He has just tabled a draft decree “relating to the prohibition of violence once morest children in structures authorized, approved, subsidized or organized by the French Community”. We are therefore not talking here regarding what happens in families (which falls within the jurisdiction of the federal authority in matters of civil law), but in the sectors for which the Federation is responsible, namely education, early childhood care, free time care, youth, youth assistance, sports and culture. The text will soon be examined in committee.
Of course, the Penal Code already condemns intentional assault and battery. A whole series of provisions are provided for which take into account the age of the victim. The fact of committing a violent act on a minor while having authority over him is thus considered an aggravating circumstance.
But the text goes beyond the framework of these bodily assaults alone. It aims to prohibit all forms of violence, physical or psychological, once morest children, including what is called ordinary educational violence. Concretely, it is all the physical, psychological or verbal violence exercised as an educational means on a child, aimed at correcting certain behaviors or punishing.
“Children are beings under construction, vulnerable, dependent, who need to be protected once morest all forms of violence that can be committed in various institutions, we read. Hitting, humiliating or shouting at a child, even for educational purposes, are forms of violence.”
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Avoid remarks, just in case?
Take the case of school. The concrete forms of violence can be multiple. “Yes, it exists, assures Véronique De Thier of Fapeo (the federation of parents’ associations in official education). Even if we don’t talk regarding it much. A few examples: bringing a little one back in line by pulling him by the collar, depriving him of dessert or recreation, tearing up a homework, throwing away a telephone, pulling his ears, putting him in the corner, threatening, giving a demeaning nickname or, once more, treating stupid or hopeless.
Are each of these acts systematically violent? By forcing the line a little, should any remark be avoided, just in case? “The prohibition of violence once morest children does not in any way mean the end of the education of children, which is also a right, further specifies the text. Children need to be framed by rules, prohibitions and a respectful education helping them to build themselves. In this sense, laxity and negligence can also constitute forms of violence affecting the development of children.
We can see how difficult it can be to avoid anything that might be perceived as violent while enforcing strict rules. This is why the draft decree also plans to support and educate professionals regarding positive education. It also remains to be clarified what will happen in the face of a case of violence once the text has been voted on.
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