Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand supports an amendment to Section 59 of the Crimes Act, which currently provides a legal defence to charges of assault by parents of children.
Despite the very polarised public debate about the Crimes (Abolition of Force as a Justification for Child Discipline) Amendment Bill, Caritas found that there was a much greater degree of consensus among many Catholic groups, about the Bill, than expected.
There was little support for the status quo, which has seen juries acquit parents charged with using implements such as canes and whips on their children. In recognition of New Zealand’s unacceptably high child abuse statistics, Caritas recognises the need for change.
But we also found there were shared concerns about the extent of potential prosecution under full repeal. The position of Caritas and a number of other Catholic organisations working with children and families was that if the government does not intend prosecution of parents using minor or intermittent acts of physical punishment on their children, then the legislation should say so.
In writing our submission, Caritas carefully considered both Catholic social teaching on children’s rights, particularly the protection of children, and the subsidiarity of families. Caritas decided to support the intent of draft wording of an alternative amendment proposed by UNICEF which defines what kinds of force used by parents against their children could be considered unreasonable. This says:
That unreasonable force includes, but is not limited to, repeated and/or heavy blows, punching, striking with an object, whipping, kicking, shaking, hitting around the head, twisting of limbs, burning, biting and any other action which medical evidence or research findings confirm as having an injurious effect on the physical or mental health of the child.
Caritas does not support calls for an amendment to define “reasonable force” which we believe could have the unintended consequence of legalising some acts of violence against children.
Caritas has not yet been called by the Justice and Electoral Select Committee to address the matters discussed in our submission.