Two-thirds of Lithuanians back corporal punishment ban - BNS/RAIT survey

VILNIUS - Almost 68 percent of the Lithuanian population are in favor of the corporal punishment of children being banned by law, a survey carried out by the pollster RAIT for BNS has shown.

Some 30.7 percent of respondents said they totally approved of the parliament's decision to introduce the ban and another 37 percent said they approved of it.

Twelve percent said they disapproved of the ban and almost one percent said they definitely disapproved of it. Nearly 18 percent of those polled said they neither approved not disapproved.

RAIT noted that only 1.6 percent of respondents had no opinion, which shows how important the issue is to the society.

The company polled 1,020 people aged between 15 and 75 years on Feb. 9-26. The representative survey was commissioned by BNS.

The Seimas on Feb. 14 passed amendments to the Framework Law on Children's Rights Protection that prohibit any use of force against children. Non-governmental organizations estimate that Lithuania has become the 52nd country in the word to ban the corporal punishment of children.

The long-debated law was adopted after a four-year-old boy was beaten to death in the town of Kedainiai, in central part Lithuania.