Media release

15 June 2011

Bullying is a human rights issue.

'Children do not lose their human rights by virtue of passing through the school gates.'[1]

Young people have a right to education and they have a right to be safe. When young people are bullied, it compromises their safety and it affects their access to education. Bullying is an abuse of young people's human rights.

Failing to properly respond to bullying is also an abuse of human rights; the New Zealand Human Rights Commission states: 'Any failure to treat bullying, abuse and violence seriously, because it occurs between students, within schools, is a violation of a child's human rights.'

Collabor8 is the name refugee-background youth have given to their drama group preparing a performance about bullying for World Refugee Day. The short play explores the impact of bullying on high school students, and talks about the ways that refugee-background students are doubly impacted by bullying because of their backgrounds.

The group, who have come from Burma, Iraq, Rwanda, and Sudan, had never experienced bullying in their home countries, yet all reported being bullied at their schools since arriving in New Zealand. As one participant noted, 'In our home countries, we liked our classmates but were scared of the teachers. Here, we like our teachers, but we're scared of our classmates.'

Settling into a new school can be difficult for anyone, but young people from refugee backgrounds can find it particularly hard. Bullying is not just about getting beaten up. It can include name-calling, intimidation and ostracism. For refugee-background young people, this can include being mocked for their accent, their clothing, or the colour of their skin.

Bullying is a major problem in New Zealand; an international survey showed that New Zealand youth have the second highest reported incidence of bullying[2], with one in three young people reporting that they've been hit, made to do things against their will, made fun of, been left out of activities, or had things stolen.[3]

The drama project is a collaboration with Voice Arts Trust and ChangeMakers Refugee Forum .

There will be two performances only:

1. Wellington World Refugee Day celebrations, Sunday, 19 June at The Velodrome, Hataitai Park at 2pm.

2. Monday 20 June 6-8pm, Ground Floor, Multicultural Services Centre, 39 Webb Street, Mount Cook.

DVD & Resource

The performances will be filmed and made available to schools, parents, and communities. It will come with a discussion guide about bullying as a human rights issue and the impact of bullying on refugee-background youth.
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