President Higgins to mark first ever International Day Against Violence and Bullying in Schools
Date: Tue 3rd Nov, 2020 | 10:31
On Thursday 5 November, President Higgins will mark the inaugural United Nations’ “International Day Against Violence and Bullying in Schools”, with an address to an event hosted by the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre at Dublin City University.
The United Nations’ education and science organisation UNESCO has declared the first Thursday of November of every year the ‘International Day against Violence and Bullying at School, Including Cyberbullying’.
This new International Day highlights school-related violence in all its forms, recognising that bullying is an infringement of children and adolescents’ rights to education and well-being.
Throughout his Presidency, President Higgins has called attention to the destructive effect of violence and bullying, including through social media. The President has called attention to how these forms of violence have such a destructive effect on people’s lives and rob them of their dignity.
In his address to mark the International Day, President Higgins will speak of school-related violence, in all its forms, as “a serious infringement of not only children and adolescents’ rights to education, but their basic rights to health and well-being.”
The President will end by stressing that “ending child and youth violence is possible. Let us all do what we can to achieve this goal as a matter of urgency.”