I forgot to bring my English book on 12/01/2018. There were 9-10 students. We were asked to kneel down by the teacher. He pulled us by our ears. We went to the police to complain. Then something has happened. The next day Madam asked others not to talk to me. That teacher has left the school. Madam says the school lost a good teacher because we went to the police. Other students did not talk to me. They were rude. In the interval, all students would go out. They started bullying me. I felt sad and lonely. Don’t feel like going to school again. I can’t sleep. It takes a long time to fall asleep.
The complaint relates to an 11-year-old girl child who was subjected to corporal punishment and later subjected to mental abuse whilst at a private international school in Sri Lanka. The State party has failed to respond to the UN OHCHR Committee on three consecutive occasions; a last and final reminder was sent on 31 August 2023 with a deadline of 31 October 2023. The case is awaiting final review by the UN OHCHR Committee.
“He hurt me!” – Listen to the heartbreaking lived experience of the child victim
The facts of the submission are that (1) Sri Lanka discriminates between government school and other schools, where corporal punishment is only prohibited in government schools and there is no unequivocal prohibition of corporal punishment in schools by law; (2) that Sri Lanka has taken no steps to address such disparity, thus subjecting minors in schools other than government schools to discriminatory treatment; and (3) no effective investigations took place regarding the complaints made to local authorities regarding the corporal punishment of the girl child.