Senator Elena Misulina questioned the sanity of a law that mandates removal of a child out of the family and prison time for a parent, all for a whooping.
In her interview for RT, Misulina noted, “Administrative punishment is quite enough to protect a family from abuse. Getting a spanking is not the same as being assaulted. Can a cuff be considered fair grounds to have a child removed from the family and a parent sent to jail?”
Misulina maintains that the accountability for spanking against bodily harm should not be the same. “The Law of the Russian Federation clearly specifies what should be treated as an administrative punishment. Violence among relatives should have its limits.
Let me explain: if one gives spanking or deals a cuff, it is treated as misdemeanor and the person gets a fine, a short arrest, or public service hours. But if there are clear signs of bodily harm such as bruises or a concussion, the situation is treated as a criminal offence, and the law to address it is already in place.”
As we know, a “spanking law” was signed in June of 2016. According to this law, relatives and other people close to a child are subject to up to two years of jail time for violence that didn’t cause bodily harm, like cuffs or spanking. At the same time, if such offences are inflicted by anyone other than relative, such actions would only be charged as misdemeanor.
National Parental Resistance activists collected over 213,000 signatures against parental discrimination and took them all to the President.
In January of 2017, Gosduma and the Federation Council of Russia annulled the scandalous statutes of the Law.
[Russ. Gosduma is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia (legislature) in the Russian Federation; Federation Council of Russia is the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia. RV]
Russian source:
Link active as of February 5, 2017. RV