Bullying violates! A common social phenomenon amongst schoolchildren from a child rights perspective

Abstract

Bullying is nowadays seen as the most vicious form of aggressive behaviour practiced among pupils in schools, causing a wide range of severe health problems which in the worst case scenario can even result in the death of the involved children. Despite of its serious nature it has proved to be a widespread phenomenon. Although an extensive body of literature has been devoted to the topic, almost no researcher examined the phenomenon from a human rights perspective. The present paper combined the findings of psychological, sociological and medical research on bullying with a legal evaluation of the implications of bullying for the realization of human rights. It could be shown that acts of bullying pose a threat to the enjoyment of a whole range of rights of all children involved therein. Among those affected rights the right to physical and personal integrity and the right to education play a major role. Another aim of the paper was to examine whether states could be obliged to take action against bullying, resulting from their obligation to fully implement all provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It could be solidly proven that the state would violate its obligations under the CRC by not undertaking any serious attempt to address the problem of bullying.