ABSTRACT
The Williamson case revolved about whether parents could exercise their right to continue the practice of corporal punishment in their Christian schools. The Williamson case draws attention to the importance of children's rights. Rights are important because they are inclusive: they are universal, available to all members of the human race. To accord rights is to respect dignity: to deny rights is to cast doubt on humanity and on integrity. Rights are an affirmation of the Kantian basic principle that we are ends in ourselves, and not means to the ends of others. Rights offer legitimacy to pressure groups, lobbies, campaigns, to both direct and indirect action, in particular to those who are disadvantaged or excluded. The child's growth towards an independent adulthood would be seen as an organic process that unfolds within the context of a multitude of interdependent relationships within both the family and society at large.
