The Human Rights Commission has long standing concerns about bullying, violence and abuse within schools.
In 2008 the Commission received a complaint from parents of students subjected to bullying, violence and abuse by other students within a secondary school. As the Office of the Children’s Commissioner had already begun to consider a comprehensive school safety inquiry, the Human Rights Commission undertook to analyse the human rights issues that arise when students are victimised by their peers.
This work has focused on whether and to what extent the rights to education and to personal security and the principles of natural justice are promoted and protected by legislation and applied in policies and practices dealing with the management of peer-to-peer bullying, violence and abuse.