All 70 countries that have banned child smacking: England urged to join Wales and Scotland

Doctors have called for new laws to ban the smacking and slapping of children in England and Northern Ireland. 

In 2022, Wales joined Scotland in banning smacking and now the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is pushing for the rest of the UK to do the same. 

Professor Andrew Rowland, a consultant paediatrician and RCPCH officer for child protection, told Sky: "The laws around physical punishment as they stand are unjust and dangerously vague.

"They create a grey area in which some forms of physical punishment may be lawful, and some are not."

Despite this, a minister has insisted it is for parents to discipline their children after paediatricians called for a UK-wide ban on smacking.

Treasury minister Laura Trott said the law in England is clear that any abuse of children is “completely unacceptable”.

Minister Laura Trott said the law is clear and that it is up to parents to discipline their children (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (Stefan Rousseau / PA)

Where is smacking banned?

According to Wikipedia, as of April 2024, 70 countries had banned corporal punishment of children. These are: 

 Sweden (1979)

 Finland (1983)

 Austria (1989)

 Cyprus (1994)

 Denmark (1997)

 Poland (1997)

 Latvia (1998)

 Germany (1998)

 Croatia (1999)

 Bulgaria (2000)

 Israel (2000)

 Turkmenistan (2002)

 Iceland (2003)

 Ukraine (2004)

 Romania (2004)

 Hungary (2005)

 Greece (2006)

 Netherlands (2007)

 New Zealand (2007)

 Portugal (2007)

 Uruguay (2007)

 Venezuela (2007)

 Chile (2007)

 Spain (2007)

 Togo (2007)

 Costa Rica (2008)

 Moldova (2008)

 Luxembourg (2008)

 Liechtenstein (2008)

 Norway (2010)

 Tunisia (2010)

 Kenya (2010)

 Congo, Republic of (2010)

 Albania (2010)

 South Sudan (2011)

 North Macedonia (2013)

 Cabo Verde (2013)

 Honduras (2013)

 Malta (2014)

 Brazil (2014)

 Bolivia (2014)

 Argentina (2014)

 San Marino (2014)

 Nicaragua (2014)

 Estonia (2014)

 Andorra (2014)

 Benin (2015)

 Ireland (2015)

 Peru (2015)

 Mongolia (2016)

 Montenegro (2016)

 Paraguay (2016)

 Aruba (2016)[4]

 Slovenia (2016)

 Lithuania (2017)

 Nepal (2018)

 Kosovo (2019)

 France (2019)

 South Africa (2019)

 Jersey (2019)

 Japan (2020)

 Georgia (2020)

 Scotland (2020)

 Seychelles (2020)

 Guinea (2021)

 Colombia (2021)

 South Korea (2021)

 Wales (2022)

 Zambia (2022)

 Mauritius (2022)