The House of Representatives passes the ‘law prohibiting the hitting of children’

The House of Representatives passed the 'law prohibiting the beating of children'. 'Natthawut' pointed out that even though there is no word 'not beating', it does not mean that parents can hurt their children because there is still a law protecting children to punish them. The House of Representatives meeting was chaired by Mr. Pichet Chueamuangphan, First Vice President of the House of Representatives, to consider the draft bill (Act) to amend the Civil and Commercial Code, No. .. B.E. ... or the law prohibiting hitting children, which the special committee has already considered. It is the second and third readings. Mr. Sanphasit Kumpraphan, Chairman of the Committee, explained that in the meeting, the Committee had a debate, with the majority of the Committee members agreeing on the phrase 'not a flogging', while the minority of the Committee members agreed that there should be no phrase stating that it was a flogging. In addition, the Committee made observations for relevant government agencies to con sider amending the laws under their responsibility and to proceed in accordance with the Civil and Commercial Code. The meeting expressed their opinion that punishing children to teach or adjust their behavior must not involve physical or mental abuse or inappropriate actions. For example, Ms. Sasinan Thamnithinan, MP for Bangkok, Prachachon Party, discussed that not hitting children or abusing them is still an internationally accepted principle. As someone who has two children, since they were born until now, she has never hit them even once. She believes that if we do not hit our children, we can teach them in other ways. If there is still hitting in the home because of love or for teaching, we will not be able to teach our children in the future that hurting each other is not good. Therefore, writing to protect children in the civil law this time is just to spark the beginning of protecting children and youth who will be the future personnel of the country, who will be safe from being physically and menta lly abused. She also wants to remember that the problems in society that arise are caused by the upbringing of children from 0-6 years old who may not have been raised perfectly, being hit or abused, causing problems in society today. Mr. Nattawut Buaprathum, a party-list MP from the Prachachon Party and a member of the committee, explained that there was a lot of debate in the committee, and the majority still insisted that they wanted the words 'not whipping' to be included in the punishment or behavior modification of parents and guardians. Even though my minority voted to remove the words 'not whipping', it does not mean that guardians can whip their children because whipping is something that cannot be done to support positive child-rearing, or even violent whipping that affects the body and mind is an offense under the Child Protection Act or other related criminal codes. The meeting voted with a minority of 253 to remove the words 'not a whipping', with a majority of 145 to add the words 'not a whipp ing', 1 abstention, and 1 no vote. Then it was the third reading vote, the meeting agreed with 391 votes, disagreed with 1 vote, abstained with 1 vote, and did not vote with 5 votes. It is considered that the meeting approved this draft bill and agreed with the observations. Then the draft bill will be sent to the Senate for further consideration. Source: Thai News Agency