UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9: Marta Santos Pais, a special representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children said that being protected from bullying is a fundamental human right.
Around 130 million, or one-in-three children worldwide, experience some form of bullying, the United Nations stated on Monday, in its latest report on how children can be better-protected.
This form of violence has long-lasting and direct consequences for their health, school performance and overall well-being, United Nations news reported.
At an event at UN headquarters in New York, co-organised with the Governments of Mexico and Lithuania, Ms Santos Pais presented the key findings of the Secretary-General report and welcomed the ‘growing interest’ from the world on the matter, applauding efforts made so far in terms of policy, law and advocacy to protect the safety of children.
Earlier this year Member States agreed on the adoption of a new indicator in the monitoring of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Indicator 4.a.2 now measures the percentage of students who have experienced bullying in the past year, by gender, and for each contributing country. Despite such encouraging signs, the Special Representative identified several key areas where improvement was needed for Governments and institutions.
First, she emphasised the importance of early childhood prevention and noted that the ‘parent-child relationship is a critical factor in predicting the risk of bullying in adolescence’. According to the report, 176 million children under-five, witnessed domestic violence on a regular basis and children who bully others are twice as likely to have been exposed to domestic violence than other children. “Exposure to toxic stress, domestic violence and a violent family environment has an irreversible impact on the development of very young children,” she said, adding that “it contributes to normalise the use of violence”. Approximately 30 per cent of adolescents in 39 countries in Europe and North America, admit to bullying others at school. In addition, Ms Santos Pais noted that teachers also play a great role in promoting ‘a culture of respect and safety’ in schools and that sports environments can often become contexts where competitiveness leads to humiliation, shaming and exclusion of those who fail to win. “Analyses of data from Ethiopia, India, Peru and Viet Nam reveal that violence in schools, including physical and verbal abuse by teachers and by other students, is the most common reason given for disliking school, and, significantly, it is associated with lower scores in mathematics and lower self-esteem,” the report highlights. To address these negative impacts, experts and decision-makers are lacking sufficient data to form evidence-based strategies and programmes. (UNI)
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