Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has introduced a bill to parliament that would forbid parents from hitting or spanking their children, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Thursday.
The president said as soon as the bill was introduced, a number of people appeared who are against it because, according to them, it is an attempt "to forbid mothers from raising their children." The Brazilian leader said he would nonetheless continue to push the bill through and continue fighting against other methods of rearing children that involved violence toward children and teenagers.
"If [physical] punishment had any effect, then we wouldn't have so much corruption [in the country]," he said jokingly, adding: "It doesn't solve anything, I've never hit my children."
The president's bill on forbidding physical punishment must still be passed in both houses of the country's National Congress.
New Zealand passed an anti-smacking law in 2007 which has remained a source of controversy, and last year, New Zealanders voted in a postal referendum on whether parents should have the right to physically discipline their children.
Parents are divided between those who believe that physical punishment is a private matter that should not involve politicians and that the law criminalizes parents, and those who think that it gives children the same rights as adults and prevents child abuse.
RIO DE JANEIRO, July 15 (RIA Novosti)
