Still committed to children’s rights?

As a new year dawns and once again there is time for reflection on the year just gone, there are many contenders for events that shocked, delighted, amused, disappointed or just made me sit up and take notice. My thoughts concerning the Welsh political scene settled on the events of 19 October 2011 when a cross–party motion laid by Christine Chapman (Labour), Julie Morgan (Labour), Lindsay Whittle (Plaid) and Kirsty Williams (Liberal Democrat) was debated in Plenary in the National Assembly. The motion urged the Welsh Government to change the law to end the availability of the defence of ‘reasonable chastisement’ for an offence of assaulting a child.

The motion was passed by a majority in the Assembly (25 to 14 votes) but members of the Welsh Government abstained, and the responsible Minister, Gwenda Thomas (AM for Neath) herself a long term supporter of legal reform on this issue, had to tell the National Assembly that the Government was not minded to put forward legislation that would give equal protection to children now or in this Assembly term – even though they accepted that since the Referendum in March 2011, the Welsh Government had the necessary legal powers.  A weak and woolly justification was given by the Minister for not legislating now. The main reason seeming to be concerns that such a ban could criminalise parents. Instead the Minister said there needed to be more ‘preparatory work’ to ‘pave the way for legislation of this sort’.

Those like me in the Children Are Unbeatable! Cymru alliance who were involved in working with previous Welsh governments and Welsh MPs and Peers to persuade the last UK Government to allow Wales to effect this legal reform were, to say the least, rather gob-smacked at this volte face. Why, when successive, Labour-led governments of Wales (under Rhodri Morgan’s stewardship) had taken such a strong and principled stance on this issue and shouted loud and hard for legal reform at Westminster when they did not have the necessary legal powers to pursue legal reform themselves, were they now – when they do have the requisite powers – reneging on their position?

To talk of the need for more ‘preparatory work’ before legislation could be brought forward, when for nearly a decade, successive Welsh governments have resourced and driven improved support for parents in developing alternatives to smacking as well as other measures to educate and promote positive, non-violent parenting was in my view, at best, disappointing and at worst, a rather lame excuse for inaction. Quite what the current Welsh Government is now going to do differently to ‘pave the way for legislation’ at a time when mainstreamed parenting support is under threat because of widespread, public sector budget cuts – is yet to be announced.

Since devolution, successive Welsh governments have supported the call for law reform to give children in Wales equal protection from being hit. A number of members of the current Welsh Government are on record as ardent supporters of legal reform. So what has changed? One thing that’s changed of course is that Welsh Labour has a different leader and Wales has a different First Minister.

In 2002 when the then Welsh Government first publicly came out in support of legal reform to remove the ‘reasonable punishment’ defence and give children equal protection, I felt proud that our young government were standing up for children’s rights, that they were strongly committed to complying with international human rights treaties and to supporting parents to change their behaviour and to use other more effective methods to discipline their children. I felt proud of the cross-party support for this position within the National Assembly and proud of the many Welsh parliamentarians at Westminster, including:  Julie Morgan, Simon Thomas, Elfyn Llwyd, Baroness Finlay and Baroness Gale who did all that they could (albeit unsuccessfully) to influence the passage of the 2004 Children Bill to include this change. Now I feel very disappointed that, that commitment seems to have been de-railed; embarrassed that Welsh politicians might be seen in other parts of the UK and in Europe, as ‘all mouth and no action’ on this issue and saddened by the wasting of an opportunity that our new constitutional settlement affords.

Wales since devolution has a proud record on promoting and protecting children’s rights and a reputation across the UK and internationally for its principled stances in support of children’s rights (which are not always popular). Let’s make sure Wales remains a place where children’s rights matter and where our political leaders deliver on their espoused policies. This is about achieving equal protection for children in Wales but it’s also about retaining faith and trust in politicians and political parties to not just shout from the side-lines but to also embrace their stated commitments to children’s rights and to lead the way.

Anne Crowley is a freelance researcher and consultant