Violence against children is widespread, across different cultures and societies. It occurs everywhere including homes, schools and streets; in places of work and entertainment, and care and detention centres. While all children face violence everywhere, children from the marginalised background and children who expose to crisis situation such as war, armed conflicts, environmental disaster are more vulnerable to various forms of physical and mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse.   

The Committee on the Rights of Child, through a series of General Comments including General Comments Nos. 8, 13, 24 and 26 provides guidance on how States can meet their obligations to protect children from all forms of violence. Interpreting Article 19 of the Convention in its General Comment 13, it highlights various States’ obligations – in terms of the legislative, administrative, social and educational measures that the State has to take to protect children from all forms violence in all ‘care settings,’ including schools. The committee further emphasises the different stages of intervention to be focussed from prevention through to recovery and reintegration.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child defines ‘care settings’ as ‘places where children spend time under the supervision of their “permanent” primary caregiver (such as a parent or guardian) or a proxy or “temporary” caregiver (such as a teacher or youth group leader) for periods of time which are short-term, long-term, repeated or once only. Usual care settings include family homes, schools and other educational institutions, early childhood care settings, after-school care centres, leisure, sports, cultural and recreational facilities, religious institutions and places of worship.’ (General Comment No. 13, para. 34)

The set of indicators in this section assess a) the existence of child protection policies in education institutions, b) the preventive plans that the State has to adopt to protect educational institutions during emergencies and lastly c) the integration of trauma counselling/therapy services in educational programs for physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim affected in emergencies. This can be assessed together or separately depending on the purpose of the monitoring.

• Existence of laws and /or policies ensuring child protection from all forms of violence in schools and educational institutions including ECCE centres/pre-primary schools

Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasises that States have to take legislative, administrative, social and educational measures for the protection of children. According to the Committee on the Rights of the Child the legislative measures refer to national, provincial and municipal laws and all relevant regulations (General Comment 13, paras. 41 and 42).  Further, the Committee suggests that sectoral legislations such as family law, education law should clearly prohibit use of violence or corporal punishment in the relevant settings (General Comment 8, para. 35). The administrative measures include establishing policies, programmes, monitoring and oversight systems required to protect the child from all forms of violence. Further, it clarifies that the policies should cover professional codes of ethics and guidance for teachers, carers and others, rules of charters of institutions, protocols, memoranda of understanding and standards of care for all childcare services and settings. Check the existence of specific child protection laws and policies that protect children from all forms of violence in all care settings, including schools, other educational institutions and ECCE centres.

Human Rights Standards:

Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 19, General Comment No. 8 (para. 35), General Comment No. 13 (paras. 41 and 42).  

• Existence of national contingency plans to protect children and staff and educational facilities including schools and  ECCE centres in times of emergencies

This indicator assesses if national contingency plans exist to protect children, staff in schools and educational facilities during emergencies. This should be done as part of the State’s emergency preparedness efforts for reducing risks in education in emergencies such as climate disasters, health crises, conflicts, etc. The handbook published by the Global Education Cluster recommends to include such plans as part of the  education sector development plan.

The Safe School Declaration recommends ‘to adopt and promote “conflict-sensitive” approaches to education in international humanitarian and development programmes, and at a national level where relevant’. Further the guidelines provided along with the Safe school Declaration emphasise that schools and universities should not be used and must never be destroyed by the fighting forces of parties to armed conflicts (Guideline 1). It emphasises that the parties to armed conflict should take into consideration the fact that children are entitled to special respect and protection as well as the potential long-term negative effect on a community’s access to education posed by damage to or the destruction of a school (Guideline 4.a).

In the case of protecting ECCE centres and staff in areas affected by armed conflict, ILO Policy Guidelines on ECCE personnel suggest measures that include: agreements between parties of an armed conflict to designate ECCE centres as demilitarized zones; not to target staff, children, parents and infrastructure in relation to an ECCE facility; and to continue operation of ECCE services in the event of a change of power over a locality. ECCE centres can be supported to establish necessary procedures in case of imminent or actual violence (evacuation of staff and children, protective measures for staff and children), and to establish community-based early warning capacities to monitor risks of violence (para. 121).

For more details about disaster risk reduction in emergencies and good practices refer to the Global  Education Cluster’s handbook, ‘Disaster Risk Reduction in Education in Emergencies: A Guidance Note’ (2012).

Human Rights Standards:

Convention on the Rights of the Child, Articles 38.4, General Comment No. 7 (paras. 3, 36), General comment No. 26 (para. 69); Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Articles 24 and 50.

See also non-binding instruments:

• ILO Policy Guidelines on ECCE personnel (para. 121)
• Tashkent Declaration and Commitments to Action for Transforming Early Childhood Care and Education, (para 2.iii)

Specific references: 

• Committee on the Rights of the Child, General comment No. 26, para. 69: ‘States have a due diligence obligation to take appropriate preventive measures to protect children against reasonably foreseeable environmental harm and violations of their rights, paying due regard to the precautionary principle. This includes assessing the environmental impacts of policies and projects, identifying and preventing foreseeable harm, mitigating such harm if it is not preventable and providing for timely and effective remedies to redress both foreseeable and actual harm.’ 
• Tashkent Declaration and Commitments to Action for Transforming Early Childhood Care and Education (Guiding principles and strategies for transformational ECCE, para. 2.iii): ‘Protect and guarantee the right to ECCE in and after emergencies and protracted crises: Children and ECCE services are hugely vulnerable to crises, including conflicts and natural disasters. All efforts should be made to protect them’

• Integration of free and quality trauma counselling/therapy services in the School or ECCE programme for children affected by any forms of neglect, exploitation or abuse; or any form of inhuman/degrading treatment

Article 39 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires States to ‘promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts.’ This indicator examines if school programmes, including ECCE programmes, provide phyco-social support to young children and students  affected by any form of violence, including in contexts of emergencies. 

Human Rights Standards:

Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 39,  General Comment No. 7 (Paras. 36, 37), General Comment No. 8 (para. 37), General Comment No. 13, (paras. 47.d, 52), Joint general Comment No. 4 of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights to All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families and No. 23 the Committee on the Rights of the Child (para. 62).

Specific reference to ECCE: 

Tashkent Declaration and Commitments to Action for Transforming Early Childhood Care and Education (Guiding principles and strategies for transformational ECCE, para. 2.iii): ‘Protect and guarantee the right to ECCE in and after emergencies and protracted crises: Children and ECCE services are hugely vulnerable to crises, including conflicts and natural disasters. All efforts should be made to protect them.  Programmes should support psycho-social and emotional well-being as well as education and care, and trauma informed pedagogy. All programmes should help children and their families to build resilience to navigate future crises.’