Any provisions in the Maltese statute book that allowed corporal punishment and that could endorse child abuse had to be removed in order to come in line with international law, according to a British expert.
Since Maltese legislation allows "reasonable chastisement" to take place in the home, there was no clear demarcation line between physical abuse and merely restraining the child, said Cailin Mackenzie, a lawyer who specialises in children's rights.
The law thus provided a form of defence for parents and children could, therefore, be abused, even through smacking, with the state's support, she argued.
"It is ironic that a child is fairly defenceless while women are protected by Maltese law."
Due to the existence of the "reasonable chastisement" clause, Malta was definitely in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Social Charter, Dr Mackenzie said.
The island was also possibly in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the prohibition of torture, cruelty and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Dr Mackenzie was a guest speaker at a seminar on the subject organised by the Maltese Association of Social Workers.
The mental shift not to hit children was difficult to achieve because many adults were smacked themselves when they were young. "They argue that it didn't affect them negatively and so see nothing wrong in smacking their children."
In Europe, there is a growing movement pushing for a ban in all countries. Nineteen European states have legally barred physical punishment in the home and another four are committed to doing so. Malta is one of the remaining four that has not taken any such steps.
Dr Mackenzie said research showed that any form of corporal punishment could lead to increased aggression, mental health problems and anti-social behaviour. Plus, the more frequently parents used physical punishment, the more disobedient, aggressive and defiant the child could become.
Smacking or hitting children when they were naughty did not pass on the message that they were doing something wrong; it only harmed the relationship between the parent and the child, Dr Mackenzie insisted. And it could eventually lead to more serious forms of physical abuse, such as domestic violence. "All forms of physical abuse starts from physical punishment," she said.
Even though most people remember being smacked when they were young, society and values had changed.
If a legal ban were to be implemented eventually, parents had to be provided with support and reassured they were not going to be prosecuted for minor infractions.
She suggested that Malta could simply remove the clause of reasonable chastisement from the Criminal Code.
Dr Mackenzie was at pains to point out that all this did not mean that parents who smacked were bad parents but a clear message had to be sent out that it should not be done.
A change in law had to be done carefully, with the government launching a campaign explaining the reasoning behind it while providing positive parental guidance skills. "Parents must not be made to feel they're bad parents. Positive parenting must be taught or they will be left in a vacuum."
The call for a ban on smacking was echoed during the seminar by the Commissioner for Children, Carmen Zammit who said she would like to see the abolition of all forms of physical punishment of children.
Read more in Child magazine issued with The Times today.