Human rights
People around the world agree that everyone has certain basic rights. These are often called human rights.
Children have human rights just as adults do. One of these rights is the right to be fully protected from violence.
International organisations like the United Nations and the Council of Europe work to make sure that human rights are respected in different countries.
The United Nations
Most of the countries in the world are members of the U.N.The United Nations (U.N.) is an international organisation which most of the countries in the world belong to. One of the things it does is to work to make sure that its member countries respect human rights.
The UN make human rights conventions which say what countries should do to make sure that people are treated properly. When countries sign up to the conventions, they agree to try to follow them.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the ChildThis is a set of rules about how countries in the United Nations should respect children's rights. says that children should be protected from all violence and that this means that all corporal punishmentThis means punishing people using violence, for instance by hitting them. should be banned.
The UK has signed up to this convention.
Read more about the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the UNICEF website.
The Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an organisation of lots of countries in Europe, including the UK. It makes rules about how its member countries should behave.
One of these sets of rules is called the European Convention on Human Rights.
If a country does not do what the European Convention on Human Rights says, it can be taken to a special court, the European Court of Human Rights.This is a special court which works to make sure that countries in Europe respect the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Court can ask the country to change its laws. The Court has told the UK it has to change its law on corporal punishment.This means punishing people using violence, for instance by hitting them.
Read more on the Council of Europe's site Building a Europe for and with Children and the Council of Europe's main website.
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