Human Right Watch (HRW) has carried out a study that has revealed that boys and girls suffer gender-based violence in or around schools every year, and one in three students experiences bullying and physical violence.
Governments around the world should urgently step up efforts to ensure students’ safety at school, and in online spaces, Human Rights Watch said.
According to HRW, many governments have not yet banned corporal punishment, and many lag behind on protecting students from school-related sexual violence, bullying, and online violence.
The Human Right Watch (HRW) organization has warned girls, children with disabilities, refugee children, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students frequently experience high levels of violence and bullying. Violence against these children often receives little attention because of prevailing discriminatory and harmful attitudes that perpetuate silence and impunity.
The HRW has researched barriers to education in more than 15 countries, which revealed that children and young people experience many forms of gender-based violence in the school setting.
“It’s outrageous that students in many countries suffer terrible violence in school that can affect them for the rest of their lives,” said Elin Martinez, senior children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Grave abuses like sexual and physical violence seriously affect students’ dignity, their bodily autonomy, and their ability to learn and to feel safe at school.”
“Children have a right to learn in a safe physical or online environment and should be able to trust adults who have a legal and moral duty to protect them,” Martinez said. “This key principle should guide every government’s efforts to address and ultimately eradicate the scourge of violence and bullying in schools and online spaces.”
