Reforming the law on the physical punishment of children in England and Northern Ireland: the capabilities approach as a framework for understanding children’s wellbeing and freedoms – Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law
‘In 2024 the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) called for the law in England and Northern Ireland to be reformed to ban parents from physically punishing their children, similar to the laws that were introduced in Scotland in 2020 and in Wales in 2022. This call by the RCPCH, and the changes introduced in Scotland and Wales, makes it timely to consider the need for law reform to better protect children’s rights. However, neither domestic law in England and Northern Ireland, nor international children’s rights laws, provide children with an unambiguous and enforceable right to freedom from parental disciplinary violence. This article circumvents rights-based discourses and instead engages with Dixon and Nussbaum’s capabilities approach which conceptualises rights in terms of the capabilities, entitlements and freedoms needed to promote human flourishing. Analysing the child’s right to freedom from violence through the capabilities approach allows us to argue for redrawing the boundary between the private and public space of family life to challenge the ambiguous protection of children from violence in the family. The capabilities approach shifts the focus beyond the limitations of a solely rights‐based discourse to considering whether the protection from physical punishment provided to children in England and Northern Ireland sufficiently acknowledges the primary focus of the capabilities approach, namely to expand the child’s opportunities for human flourishing.’
Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 11th January 2026
Source: www.tandfonline.com
