Physical punishment for kids banned from today

Wednesday, 1 July 2026 06:30

Physical punishment of children is banned from today.

The law now requires parents to raise children "without violence, in particular without corporal punishment or other degrading treatment".

The change was approved by parliament last September.

Jean Zermatten, a former Valais youth-court judge and ex-president of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, calls it only "a stage victory".

He says Switzerland still falls behind most European countries that explicitly outlaw corporal punishment.

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