This archive report was first published on 2 July 2019.
On November 30, 2021, France's parliament adopted a ban on parents smacking their children, a practice that still enjoys widespread support in the country despite being condemned by the UN.
The measure, which was unanimously approved in a final vote in the Senate, makes France the 55th state to prohibit corporal punishment of children.
It will be written into the Civil Code and read out to couples when they exchange their marital vows, with newly-weds told that 'parental authority is exercised without physical or psychological violence'.
According to France's Childhood Foundation, 85 percent of French parents admit to smacking their children.
The new law does not contain a specific punishment for parents who break the rules, but its main goal is to encourage society to change its ways, as stated by Maud Petit, the MP who sponsored the measure.
The legislation brings France in line with international treaties on the rights of children, following a 2015 recommendation by the Council of Europe and a 2016 urging by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to 'explicitly prohibit' all forms of corporal punishment of children.
