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Number: ACT 77/001/2008
Date Published: 6 March 2008
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SAFE SCHOOLS
EVERY GIRL’S RIGHT
Schools are places for children to learn and grow. But many girls all over the
world go to school fearing for their safety, dreading humiliating and violent
treatment, simply hoping to get through another day.
Schools reflect wider society. The same forms of violence which women suffer
throughout their lives – physical, sexual and psychological – are present in
the lives of many girls in and around their schools.
Every day, girls face being assaulted on their way to school, pushed and hit in
school grounds, teased and insulted by their classmates, humiliated by having
rumours about them circulated through whisper campaigns, mobile phones or the
Internet. Some are threatened with sexual assault by other students, offered
higher marks by teachers in exchange for sexual favours, even raped in the
staff room. Some are caned or beaten in school in the name of discipline.
In countries racked by war, some girls are seized by armed groups, and some are
injured or killed on their journey to school or when schools are attacked.
Sexual abuse and exploitation are particular problems for girls living in
refugee or displaced people’s camps.
EVERY GIRL HAS A
RIGHT TO EDUCATION
IN A SAFE ENVIRONMENT
Violence against girls takes place in and around many educational
institutions all over the world. It is inflicted not only by teachers, but also
by administrators, other school employees, fellow students and outsiders. The
result is that countless girls are kept out of school, drop out of school, or
do not fully participate in school.
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