No spanking

October 9, 2003 

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com 

A United Nations committee has ruled Canada should bar parents from spanking their children. 

As a signatory of the Convention on the Rights of the Child , Canada is obligated to make periodic appearances before the U.N.'s Committee on Rights of the Child, which said the country should "adopt legislation to remove the existing authorization of the use of 'reasonable force' in disciplining children," the National Post reported. 

The U.N. body says Canada should "explicitly prohibit all forms of violence against children, however light, within the family, in schools and in other institutions where children might be placed." 

The ruling cannot supersede national law, the Post said, but Ottawa wants to comply with the regulations to bolster the U.N.'s attempt to encourage international norms. 

The United States and Somalia are the only countries that have not signed the convention, which routinely tells members appearing before its committee to pass laws banning spanking. 

"This ruling is another example of the U.N. infringing on our own national concerns," said John-Henry Westen, spokesman for LifeSiteNews.com , an online monitor of family values, according to the National Post. 

The Post said Moushira Khattab of Egypt admitted she lightly disciplined her own two children when they were young, but says now she knows better.