France faulted by rights body over failure on child-smacking

PARIS (Reuters) - Europe's leading human right's body, the Council of Europe, faulted France on Wednesday for failing to impose a clear ban on slapping and all other forms of corporal punishment of children. The 47-nation organisation said in a statement that French laws on smacking and punishing children were not "sufficiently clear, binding and precise". The Council, based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, said it had repeatedly chided France over this matter for failing to adhere to the legally binding rules of a convention called the European Social Charter. If France continues to fail to fall into line, it could face institutional sanctions including a ban on voting the Council's motions, being excluded from certain committees and, theoretically, being deprived of its seat on the Council. However, the French government said it did not see the need to introduce any legislation that would explicitly protect children. "I consider that France today has the laws which allow it to fight against the mistreatment of children," said Laurence Rossignol, secretary of state for the family. A number of European countries, such as Germany and Spain, have outlawed corporal punishment for children. However, many have not, and a British registered group, the Association for the Protection of All Children, complained to the Council in 2013 about seven countries -- France, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Belgium. The Council's statement only concerned France and it was not immediately clear about the status of the other complaints. (Reporting by Brian Love and Chine Labbe; Editing by Crispian Balmer)