Human rights defender Anahit Manasyan published an extraordinary report on the problem of bullying in RA public educational institutions.
The study of the bullying problem is due to the increase in the number of complaints raised as a result of the Human Rights Defender’s monitoring and the number of complaints received by the HRD staff about bullying cases, both verbally and in writing, as well as the necessity of the implementation and improvement of clear, practical and complex mechanisms for the prevention, detection, and response of the bullying problem by the state.
Within the framework of the extraordinary report, the problem of bullying, its underlying causes, and the unprecedented levels of bullying in public educational institutions of the Republic of Armenia were raised and presented, and proposals were submitted to competent state bodies to solve the problem.
Within the framework of the study, the HRD staff sent inquiries to the competent state bodies, held discussions with teachers, students, as well as with the members of the public council on the rights of children and young people belonging to the Defender.
The results of the study prove that the manifestations of bullying are widespread in public educational institutions of the Republic of Armenia. Bullying has a negative impact not only on the bullied children, but also on the perpetrators and other actors, as well as on the entire social environment. The existence of the mentioned phenomenon and the imperfection of the structures to fight against it are among the deep reasons for the atmosphere of intolerance in our society.
In this context, the Defender specially emphasizes that from the point of view of fully guaranteeing the rights of the child, the role of the state is particularly important in implementing effective mechanisms for the prevention, detection and response to bullying and ensuring them. In this regard, the state still has serious work to do and a clear positive obligation. The extraordinary report was prepared with the support of UNICEF.
