Human Rights and Sexual Abuse

Addressing Sexual Harassment in School: Using a Human Rights Framework.

The webinar exploring sexual harassment in school using a human rights framework was a fantastic opportunity to understand sexual abuse in schools, and human rights education as a right and an obligation. We recommend that you watch the video recording of the webinar as it offers important insights that can help all teachers and educators in understanding how these topics are combined.

You can see the presentation in the video here:

The questions and participation were not included in the video, but have been summarised here as they add to the conversation, and we wanted to share these ideas too.

An introduction to the hosts.

Audrey Osler is a Professor of Education at the University of South-Eastern Norway and at the University of Leeds, UK. She is Editor-in-Chief of Human Rights Education Review. She has expertise in working for reconciliation in post-conflict settings in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Her most recent book is Human rights and schooling: an ethical framework for teaching for social justice and she is currently writing Where are you from? No, where are you really from? drawing on history and memoir to discuss empire, migration and belonging (Virago Press, 2022).

Twitter: @ÁudreyOsler:

Beate Goldschmidt-Gjerløw is a researcher and PhD candidate at Agder University in Norway. Beate is a political scientist specialized in peace studies and conflict transformation. She has taught politics and human rights for many years in upper secondary schools and is lecturing in teacher education programs at various universities and colleges in Norway. Her current research explores how teachers address sexual violence in upper secondary schools. Beate is editing the anthology Controversial, emotional and sensitive issues in school (Universitetsforlaget, 2021). You can find out more about her research and publications here

Twitter: @beate_gold

Key questions from the webinar

Question - I was a primary teacher and I think young children can suffer the same social injustice and have a similar experience of not being listened to. Have you any work that you can cite that shows that very young children also need to be aware of what their human rights are, and be aware that they have the right to be listened to and not to be sexually harassed because they can experience this in muted ways as well as overtly. Is there any information on this?

Audrey Osler - I would just say that in the UK we have a comprehensive Rights Respecting Schools programme on child rights education in some schools, developed by UNESCO. Where children do learn about their right to express themselves and to be confident to ask questions to engage with human rights in this very concrete way, they are able to address everyday issues, and understand sexual harassment and other concerns. However, I have a reservation also because I have come across examples of Rights Respecting Schools that may contradict this. Some human rights education may be more concerned with certain forms of discipline to manage children’s behaviour. So, I think that any of these programmes can be used for good or ill.

Participant Comment - Thank you for a letting me join in, I am a former primary school teacher myself and I'm now currently doing a PhD focused on primary school teacher’s ability to detect and intervene towards harmful sexual behaviour in primary school. So, it is good that we can cover all stages of school here. Teaching children from a very young age how to voice their opinion, and how to tell people about violations of human rights, not only sexual but any, is essential for children. The teacher has such an important role in modelling the behaviour you want to see in creating a safe space for children to talk. I mean the safe space has to be there regardless, for children to exercise their participatory rights and controversial issues.

Answer from participant and Ph.D. Research Fellow Kjersti Draugedalen - We have all this research from not only Norway but from worldwide, saying that children and young people who are sexually abused can take around 17 years to tell anyone. But if you as a professional can become this significant other, the chances are much higher for children to actually share these kinds of traumatic experiences sooner. However, teachers tend to outsource this difficult teaching about sexual violence, and when you outsource it to people there isn’t necessarily that special bond and it disables that communication, because you don't have that fundamental trust that is needed. Schools often outsource their human rights education as well through NGOs and so on, which kind of amplifies the problem.

Question - Do Teachers have a legal obligation to report any suspected mistreatment of students to a governmental body? For example in Canada when a teacher suspects mistreatments they are obligated to report the case to the children's aid society and social services. Is that the same across the world?

Beate - It is in the Norwegian legal framework, the Norwegian Education Act, that if there are suspicions that any learner is experiencing violence, there is a duty to act and it depends on the nature of the violence how it is reported. If it's sexual violence they should report to the child protection service if they have a suspicion, and if they have a very firm suspicion they can also contact the police.

That leads nicely onto another question that we've had. Which is about what is unprofessional and illegal in terms of sexual harassment. A teacher who was doing some training said that the other teachers were asking what specifically are the terms for sexual harassment.

Experiencing sexual harassment is very subjective and it entails all forms of unwanted sexual attention and it can be verbal, it can be digital, it can be non-verbal, through body language and it can also be physical. So, it has both verbal and non-verbal, and physical dimensions. Harassment can take many forms, it can be sexual harassment, it can be heterosexual harassment, it can be harassment that is based on sexual orientation, or harassment based on gender non conformity. So, there are many different faces of harassment.

Question- Nice to meet you thank you so much for the good presentation. I've just recently trained teachers on school related gender-based violence and they really paid great attention, and they were very happy when I read the violation paper. I also include a pledge to do something about our past violence. When I read these documents, many of them were all missing that part. If I have another chance to train teachers, how best can I get them to commit to things like documenting the cases and referring these cases of violence against children?

Beate - Thank you, I would speak very warmly of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and highlight that every child has the right to education, and the right to education also includes the right to sexual education, and that sexual education also includes education on sexual violence. Include articles about children’s rights to protection and the right to be heard. I would very much link it to the rights of the child.

But perhaps you would prefer more didactical resources? I've written about different kinds of resources that you can use in my paper on children's rights and teacher responsibilities. These include all sorts of things from picture books, digital resources and all kinds of things you can use.

Audrey - Young children are often very excited to learn they have rights, and to understand them. However, many people fear that children who are told about having rights will take advantage of that. But I have never really found that to be the case, because children also stand up for each other, and protect each other. I think most education that equips children with rights doesn't actually threaten the adult, or others.

We are all interconnected, and I think that activist element is teaching children from a very young age that they have rights, but they also have responsibilities to each other, to help uphold each other's rights. I think that creates very responsible, and very caring young people. I think it's a very powerful way of building on the caring that children bring to school, and it's building on the caring they do for their siblings and friends when they arrive in school. It's a very basic everyday action, it's not just dealing with the critical incidents that can happen.

Participant Comment – I’d like to see these things added to the curriculum here in Sierra Leone, so that teachers can incorporate this into their teaching. Otherwise, teachers won’t include it, because they won’t think about it, and understand the necessity of it, because they spend all their time on curriculum subjects. Thank you.

Thank you for reading, we hope that you have been able to watch the video too, as it offers an invaluable insight into this topic.

Please leave your comments below to tell us your thoughts too. Do you feel confident about how to approach incidents of sexual violence and harassment in school?

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Steve Sinnott Foundation • Feb 26, 2021

Capacity development as part of education

By BY JOSEPHINE DODDS • 06 May, 2024

Education has been identified as a key aspect to achieve societal development. This has been highlighted with the 2015 sustainable development goals, with goal 4 being to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Education has also shifted to being a means to transmit peace and global tolerance through increasing the understanding of other cultures. This has tied in with the rise of capacity development initiatives in development practice that seek to empower and enable individuals and communities to build upon their preexisting capacities. It is a key strategy to ensure educational development by international organisations, governments, and communities. The main principles of capacity development are participation, locally driven agenda, ongoing learning, long term investment and building upon local capacities. By integrating these principles into educational development, it allows for school communities to become involved in peace building activities. Through following a locally driven agenda schools can become centres for fostering peace and understanding and address local issues that may prevent children from attending or staying in school. This is what the UNESCO Associated Schools network aims to achieve by involving schools and educational institutes at a global level, creating networks of educators and students that share information, knowledge and spread UNESCOs value of peace. It aims to join schools through four pillars of learning: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be and learning to live together to create sustainable learning and teaching environments that involve communities in conservation activities, petitions and cultural events. Schools undertake social and educational projects that allow students to get involved with supporting developmental and humanitarian organisations, through fundraising and field trips. Recently The Steve Sinnott Foundation organised an international trip to Japan for the 70th Anniversary of UNESCO ASPnet for the Arts and Culture for peace exchange, bringing together students from The Gambia, Oman, Singapore, Korea and Coventry. By expanding education to include individuals and communities’ local agendas and addressing international issues, education can provide a platform for ongoing learning and development. It allows for students to develop their ability to think critically and connect with others meaning they can both learn and understand issues that might not be highlighted otherwise. By allowing schools, students, and communities to connect and direct their own development and focusing on developing existing capacities, the meaning and aim of education shifts from traditional roles to being focused upon understanding and peace.

Women and girls education GUPT perspective

By BY DALILA EL BARHMI • 29 Apr, 2024

Women’s and Girls’ Full Participation in Society: “Are Palestinian women reaping the benefits of education in similar ways to the rest of the world?” Palestinian women continue to be some of the most educated women in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. While women’s academic participation is indeed measurable, they are not reaping the benefits of education. Palestinian women, especially educated Palestinian women, are overlooked, and under-represented in Palestinian society. Current indicators reveal that access to education has not significantly improved women’s status in Palestinian society. It is therefore imperative to benefit from Palestinian women’s education and skills in society not only as a social right, but as a development necessity. The percentage of educated women in Palestine is remarkable and one of the highest around the world with a 99.6% in 2020 for completion in primary and upper secondary. While Palestinian women have always been visible in the national struggle, they have limited leadership and decision making-opportunities. Their participation in civil society and the formal government has been restricted. In decision making positions, women comprise only 8.3% of all ministers, 0% of ministerial representatives, and 6% of assistants to the ministerial representatives. Within all ministries women comprise 30% of staff. In the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, women are the majority, comprising 68.1%. Education unions leading by example: Education unions have viewed the education of future generations, with a focus on girls, as a form of protest, resistance to the country and Arab region’s ongoing-conflict, displacement, and upheaval. Accordingly, women and girls’ education has thrived in recent years. COVID 19 crisis a catalyst for transforming education unions: Education unions voiced that an appropriate response to COVID -19 in the education sector should consider the rights and best interests of students, teachers and education support personnel and involve education unions in developing the containment and recovery measures. This response accelerated the transformation process of the largest union in Palestine, the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT). They want to have a truly representative union and integrate women educators in the union decision making structures. Despite the pandemic, GUPT continued to engage in social dialogue with the government, continued to fight for decent working conditions and welfare for teachers and education personnel and engage in a process of trade union transformation reflecting the realities of the 21st century. The union stepped up during the rapid shift to distance learning, they have developed online programmes, trained teachers on distance learning and supported students to decrease inequality among learners. The union also urged that the transformation should also challenge discrimination and increase women’s involvement in education, in trade unions and in society. This process was a driver to enhance women’s leadership within the union’s structures. From words to action: Mechanisms put in place to enhance women educators’ participation. With the support of international sister organisations, GUPT developed their own strategy to promote women’s participation and leadership within their union and in education. They developed a strategy, and we identified the following objectives: Increase the number of women in key union leadership and decision-making bodies at the regional and national level, through capacity development training on leadership for women. They have also introduced policies such as gender quotas and allocated budgets for their gender equity programmes. Activate the role of their Women’s Committee and prioritise the recruitment of young female teachers. The union is also working to identify and address the barriers to women’s participation in union leadership and decision making. In education the union is working with the Ministry of Education to review school books so that gender discrimination is not inherently written into the curriculum. GUPT is also organising sensitization training for educators so that discriminatory stereotypes are not perpetuated in the classroom. Finally, for the GUPT it is important to secure the right to education for all Palestinian students, especially girls. Teaching and learning must occur in quality, safe environments. Every effort must be made to eradicate the different types of violence that occur all too frequently in and around educational settings.

Support the Women in our Public Schools on the way to Diversifying Teaching

By BY MARY CATHRYN RICKER • 22 Apr, 2024

Early in my work as the president of my local teacher’s union I was invited to a community leader meeting about reforming the teaching profession. Amidst the discussion of harsher teacher evaluations, raising standards for teaching, creating easier entry into the profession, merit pay for “good” teachers, and more, I brought up the fact that working conditions and salaries hadn’t meaningfully changed since the 1960s. “We’re in favor of paying math and science teachers more so they can be compensated closer to what they’d get in the private sector,” a business community representative replied, offering an idea that was not new to me. Full disclosure: my dad was a career math teacher from that era of math and science majors who answered their government’s call to become math and science teachers who would boost the United States of America’s bench in the space race. I could easily picture how a larger salary could have changed our family’s budget. Teachers’ unions like mine (and my dad’s) addressed pay disparities based on gender that were common a generation earlier by fighting for a salary schedule focused on experience and education. So, I offered back, “If we want to differentiate pay related to the most important job in education, then we should seriously consider paying kindergarten and first grade teachers more than anyone because they teach students to read, which is the rocket science of education,” alluding to an influential issue of AFT’s American Educator magazine from 1999. “Well, I’m sure those teachers are fine but I have volunteered in first grade classrooms and their work doesn’t compare to math and science teachers.” Oh. Interesting. We clearly weren’t going to see eye to eye in our differentiated pay conversation. More so, there are decades long gender stereotypes lurking behind that conversation. In addition to the history of gender based pay inequities, elementary school teachers are assumed to be female while more secondary teachers are male. There has long been a disconnect between the importance communities, elected officials, and countries have placed on education. From local funding efforts to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education, support for education is nearly universal in most communities. That support for education doesn’t always translate to support for educators and, with a majority of educators worldwide being female, that sets a dangerous precedent. Our teachers deserve professional working conditions because teaching and learning begins with their expertise. Additionally, a teacher’s working conditions are a student’s learning conditions and so administrators, public officials, or policymakers mistreating, undermining, or disrespecting teachers sends a message to students that teachers do not deserve respect, fair treatment, or professionalization. In addition to a stubborn lack of recognition of teachers as professionals, a vicious cycle exists around salary. Teachers have historically low wages because it is feminized and because it is feminized teacher’s wages are suppressed. The evidence that belonging to a union, with the ability to negotiate collectively, improves teacher compensation is key in disrupting this vicious cycle. Teaching has been a feminized profession for over a century and, despite efforts to diversify the profession, remains a feminized profession. In fact, the OECD reports that the gender gap increased from 2005 to 2019. In order for our students to have the most representative learning conditions, we need the most representative teachers so we must continue to diversify teaching to represent everyone in our communities, including by gender. Efforts like Black Men Teach, active in my home state of Minnesota, can make a meaningful difference. I would posit treating the current majority female teaching population as professionals—with professional wages, recognizing their expertise in teaching and learning rather than infantilizing them, respecting their commitment to education rather than exploiting it—would both model for students the way to treat women (and thereby model for female students how they can expect to be treated in any profession) and create the conditions for everyone to see teaching as a profession worth pursuing.