To ensure safe and inclusive learning environments for all children and adolescents, UNESCO advocates a comprehensive school health approach that encompasses policy and systems, skills-based health education, safe learning environments and links to health services.
National education sectors must adopt and implement measures to prevent and address violence and discrimination, both because of their impact on education, health and well-being, and because they stop children and young people from achieving their potential.
School-Related Gender-Based Violence
School-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) is a phenomenon that affects millions of children, male and female. It occurs in all countries in the world and cuts across cultural, geographic and economic boundaries. It includes physical and sexual violence, psychological abuse or bullying, and corporal punishment.
SRGBV violates fundamental human rights and is a form of gender discrimination which can compromise a child’s well-being, their physical and emotional health, as well as harming their cognitive and emotional development. It also negatively affects educational outcomes.
Until SRGBV is eliminated in and around schools across the world, many of the ambitious targets set by the global community through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to provide safe and supportive learning environments, to end violence against children in all settings and to achieve gender equality and eliminate violence against women and girls, will not be realized.
Homophobic and Transphobic Violence
Schools and other educational settings are supposed to be safe places where children and young people can learn free from threats and violence. Yet data analysed for UNESCO’s Out In the Open report shows that, in some countries, up to 85 per cent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students experience violence, including bullying, at school, while students who are not LGBT, but are perceived not to conform to gender norms are also targets.
All forms of discrimination and violence in schools are an obstacle to the fundamental right to quality education of children and young people and no country can achieve inclusive and equitable quality education if students are discriminated against or experience violence because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.
Preventing and addressing homophobic and transphobic violence in educational settings is part of: a) UNESCO’s mandate to ensure learning environments are safe, inclusive and supportive for all, and: b) UNESCO’s contribution to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Download UNESCO’s Out In The Open report on education sector responses to violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity expression in English, and find the Summary Report in English and French.
Measuring progress on SDG Education Target 4.a
As part of UNESCO’s work in coordinating efforts to improve measurement of progress towards Target 4.a, a new dedicated webpage for the monitoring of school violence, data and reporting on all forms of school violence can be accessed and shared here. Target 4.a refers directly to the objective of providing safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all.
This resource aims to improve the monitoring of school violence at all levels, to ensure that all children and adolescents are able to fulfil their right to a quality education. It provides policy-makers, stakeholders, and education communities with access to data and key publications, and contributes towards the monitoring of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 and targets.