Protecting Children From Bullying

A/RES/75/166View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 68aPromotion and protection of the rights of children, published in 2020.

What other versions does this mandate have?

5 versions · 2015–2023

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/77/201

2023A/RES/77/201Protecting children from bullyingLatestCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/75/166Protecting children from bullyingCompare with previous version
2019A/RES/73/154Protecting children from bullyingCompare with previous version
2017A/RES/71/176Protecting children from bullyingCompare with previous version
2015A/RES/69/158Protecting children from bullying

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 topics

Child Abuse Harassment Information Dissemination

What does this mandate say?

24 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the annual report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children;

Also takes note of the policy brief of the Secretary-General on the impact of COVID-19 on children, in which States are encouraged to invest in digital literacy and regulations that ensure children’s privacy, data protection and safety online while also taking more energetic steps to protect children from online child sexual exploitation and abuse, as well as other online harms;

Calls upon Member States:

To continue to take all appropriate measures to prevent and protect children, including in and out of school, both in person and in digital contexts, from any form of violence, such as bullying, including cyberbullying, by promptly responding to such acts, and to provide appropriate support to children affected by and involved in bullying;

To continue to promote and invest in education, including as a long-term and lifelong process by which everyone learns tolerance and respect for the dignity of others and the means and methods of ensuring such respect in all societies;

To address, through necessary measures, the wider economic and social inequalities that may contribute to bullying, including cyberbullying, including poverty, gender norms and stereotypes, taking into account that risk factors are mixed and vary depending on country and context;

To develop and implement, as appropriate, measures and restorative practices to repair harm, restore relationships, avoid recidivism, promote the accountability of perpetrators and change aggressive behaviour;

To generate and analyse statistical information and data disaggregated by sex, age and other characteristics relevant in national contexts, and to provide information on disability, with regard to the problem of bullying, including cyberbullying, as a basis on which to elaborate effective public policies;

To adopt and strengthen, as appropriate, clear and comprehensive measures, including, where relevant, legislation, that seek to prevent and protect children from bullying, including cyberbullying, and provide for safe and child-sensitive counselling and reporting procedures and safeguards for the rights of affected children;

To ensure that child protection, including social protection and mental health services, is recognized as essential and that it continues to be provided and be accessible and available to all children at all times, including during lockdowns, quarantines and other types of confinement and public health measures;

To strengthen the capacities of schools and the skills of professionals working with children in early detection and response to prevent and respond to bullying, including cyberbullying, in particular initiatives to mobilize support to prevent and address this phenomenon, and to ensure that children are informed of any existing public policies to secure their protection;

To continue to raise public awareness, involving family members, legal guardians, caregivers, young people, schools, formal and non-formal and in-person and digital education settings, communities, community leaders, the media, sports organizations, athletes, parents and coaches, as well as civil society organizations, with the participation of children, regarding the protection of children from bullying;

To develop accessible parenting and other skills programmes for parents, legal guardians and family members, together with social protection interventions that help to tackle negative social norms that contribute to violence against children and bullying, and that help to promote a nurturing family environment, reduce the risk of social exclusion and deprivation and reduce children’s potential exposure to violence at home that might be caused by, inter alia, school closures, confinement, movement restrictions, disruption of the provision of child protection services, or added family stress related to job loss and isolation;

To involve and provide children with the opportunity to participate effectively in the development of initiatives to prevent and address bullying, including available support services and safe, accessible, age- and child-sensitive, confidential and independent counselling and reporting mechanisms, to guide them in promoting inclusive and responsible digital behaviour and to inform them of available mental and physical health-care services and procedures in place to support them, where they exist, and encourages Member States to make such support services available, as much as possible;

To pay particular attention to children in vulnerable situations, including through efforts to promote mutual respect and tolerance for diversity in order to combat stigmatization, racism, xenophobia, hate speech, discrimination or exclusion;

To continue to share national experiences and best practices for preventing and tackling bullying, including cyberbullying;

Encourages Member States to continue to share with the Secretary-General, through existing processes and mechanisms, information about any initiatives undertaken at the national or subnational level to prevent and address bullying, including cyberbullying, to promote peaceful social interaction with a view to assessing progress, and to make use of the results achieved;

Encourages Member States that have not yet done so to adopt appropriate measures, such as plans of action on the prevention of and response to bullying, including cyberbullying, to implement them effectively and to assess progress in children’s protection, drawing on the experience of Member States, the United Nations, regional organizations, academia and civil society actors;

Urges Member States to ensure that all schools are free from violence, such as bullying, including cyberbullying, and peer-to-peer sexual harassment in digital contexts, and that they address all forms of violence against children, with particular attention to girls;

Calls upon Member States, with assistance from relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, to support victims of bullying with access to evidence-based, quality programmes, care and counselling for their physical, psychological and social recovery, as well as psychological care and trauma counselling, rehabilitation and social reintegration;

Welcomes the continued collaboration of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children with human rights bodies and mechanisms, within their respective mandates, including the special procedure mandate holders of the Human Rights Council, in order to support efforts to prevent and address all forms of violence against children in all settings, such as bullying, including cyberbullying;

Invites the Secretary-General to facilitate further international efforts, in collaboration with Member States, to continue to raise awareness of the impact of bullying, including cyberbullying, on the basis of evidence, including through existing initiatives of United Nations specialized agencies, funds and programmes;

Invites the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children to include information relevant to her mandate on the progress achieved in the protection of children from bullying, including cyberbullying, in her report to the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth and seventy-seventh sessions;

Decides to continue its consideration of the question at its seventy-seventh session under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of the rights of children”.

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