The European Commission of Human Rights document is not really relevant to other parts of the world. It is relevant to me in UK because the Uk is in the European Union. Well it is 'in' with it's arse hanging out. UK won't relinquish its pound and it has yet to follow all the requirements regarding corporal punishment.
However the powers of The European Court of Human Rights supersede domestic law anyway. Therefore it doesn't really matter what the people of the UK think, or what the government think for that matter. They can, and have done, ruled over British law. Therefore the UK has to follow this policy anyway.
I don't think it is such a bad thing, if you look at the results from Sweden, if they are accurate. My only gripe with the whole process is the way they imply that smacking is done due to a lack of education, or lack of intellect. I do not agree.
Just to clear up how the UN defines corporal punishment
The Committee provides a broad definition of co
rporal punishment in its General Comment:
“The Committee defines ‘corporal’ or ‘physical’ pun
ishment as any punishment in which
physical force is used and intended to cause some d
egree of pain or discomfort, however
light. Most involves hitting (‘smacking’, ‘slappin
g’, ‘spanking’) children, with the hand or with
an implement - a whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden sp
oon, etc. But it can also involve, for
example, kicking, shaking or throwing children, scr
atching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or
boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomforta
ble positions, burning, scalding or forced
ingestion (for example, washing children’s mouths o
ut with soap or forcing them to swallow
hot spices). In the view of the Committee, corpora
l punishment is invariably degrading. In
addition, there are other non-physical forms of pun
ishment that are also cruel and
degrading and thus incompatible with the Convention
...”
https://wcd.coe.int/com.instranet.InstraServlet?Index=no&command=com.instranet.CmdBlobGet&InstranetImage=1016557&SecMode=1&DocId=1318136&Usage=2
