violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

“My classmates knew my parents had died, they caused problems for me. I was segregated. I was knownas ‘The Son of AIDS’ and ‘TASO Child.’ The kids wouldn’t want to sit next to me.”Boy, receiving assistance with school fees from the AIDS Service Organization, 2004 XII4‘Outsider’ children, including those who arerefugees or from indigenous minorities, areespecially likely to be excluded, discriminatedagainst and bullied. Evidence from Australiasuggests that Aboriginal students are morelikely to be recipients of verbal abuse fromteachers and from non-Aboriginal peers thanthe others. 150 In Botswana, research by authoritieshas found that the dropout rates of Basarwa(or San) children are unusually high, and thatthey drop out largely because of prejudice andbullying, though also because the corporalpunishment meted out in schools is alien totheir culture. 151 Children from nomadic communitiesmay miss formal schooling altogetheror else be excluded, discriminated against, orbullied.In South Asia, children from official castes andindigenous tribes suffer from exclusion, discriminationand bullying in schools. In LatinAmerica, as elsewhere, indigenous children arefrequently banned from wearing traditionalclothing and hairstyles. 152 In industrialisedcountries, children of minorities or those whowear faith-related garments, such as a hijabor burka, also face discrimination by State oreducational authorities. Such discriminationmay be called a form of psychological violenceinsofar as it conveys the message that childrenare somehow less worthy because they are different,and that what makes them differentmust be suppressed.Orphaned children are more likely to drop outof school or to repeat grades, and the contrastbetween the attendance of orphans and nonorphansis greatest in countries where attendanceis already low. 153,154 In Africa, childrenorphaned or otherwise affected by HIV andAIDS may suffer stigma in school while theyare also shouldering extra burdens of grief,poverty and sibling care. A recent HumanRights Watch report into the impact of HIVand AIDS on affected children’s access to educationin Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda,documents how stigma in school leads totaunting, and makes it difficult for childrento communicate with their teachers about illnessin the family. 155 Within the context ofsilence and shame that surrounds HIV infection,the fear of stigma, discrimination andpossibly violence can lead to HIV-infected andaffected children withdrawing from school orbeing excluded, as reported not only in SouthernAfrica but elsewhere, including Bolivia, ElSalvador, Ghana, Haiti, India and Nepal. 156The special situation of girlsIn many places, there are local schools foryoung children, but children have to leavehome for boarding schools, or to live with relativesfor the higher primary grades and secondaryschool. This is often the case in regionswhere populations are scattered through ruralareas, perhaps in mountains or other hard-toaccesslocations. Parents fear that their girlsmay be assaulted on the way there or back, onthe road, or in crowded buses. A World Educationstudy in Peru found that as the distancea girl travels to school increases, so does herchance of being molested. The risks of sexualharassment, rape and unintended pregnancykeep many Peruvian girls home and increaseabsenteeism, grade repetition and dropout. 157135Violence against children in schools and educational settings