French senators have given their green lights to the bill banning all forms of violence in the education of children. Voted in the National Assembly last November, the text was finally adopted in the Senate, Tuesday, July 2, in a show of hands, unanimously.

He adds to the Civil Code the following mention, which will be read at the town hall at weddings: "parental authority is exercised without physical or psychological violence". It will also appear on the front page of the children's health notebooks.

"The beatings, the beatings, the spankings are as many stigmas that the child will have to carry all his life", declared in the podium the secretary of State for the protection of the childhood, Adrien Taquet.

According to the Children's Foundation, 85% of French parents have already resorted to educational violence, 75% of child abuse is the result of "educational punishments" and more than 50% of parents hit their child before age two years.

"Nothing is more false than the idea that ordinary educational violence would forge character," said the Secretary of State, a supporter of "benevolent education" and "equal rights between children and adults" ". Decreased self-esteem, increased antisocial behavior ... The Secretary of State, like most speakers, made an overwhelming assessment of the often lasting consequences of violence against the child and the adult in the making.

A text to "re-educate" parents ?

Senator Les Républicains Pascale Gruny was critical of the text: "What actions are in the violence box, which others are on the contrary tolerable?" The proposed wording is unclear from this point of view, "she said. .

"The French are tired of this interference by the state who would like to rehabilitate them and who would come to tell them how to educate their children," she also considered. "Education is primarily the responsibility of parents and the family."

The vote on the law is accompanied by a request for a report on the state of educational violence in France and accompanying measures for parents. The document is to be submitted to Parliament by 1 September 2019.

France becomes the 56th country to adopt a law totally prohibiting this type of violence, already adopted by a large majority of European countries. Sweden had been a pioneer in this field since 1979.

With Reuters and AFP