At least 614 cases of bullying in schools have been recorded in the country over the past 5 years. At the same time, according to UNICEF, 67% of adolescents in Ukraine aged 11 to 17 have faced the problem of bullying. This is reported by Opendatabot, according to UNN.
From 2019 until the outbreak of full-scale war, the number of bullying cases was stable at about 146 per year. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the number of cases has decreased by almost half. Only 79 decisions in bullying cases were found in the search engine for the court register "Babusya" in 2022,
Details
It is noted that last year the number of court decisions increased to 96, but still did not reach the figures before the full-scale invasion.
In 2023, most often, adolescents aged 14 to 16 were prosecuted for bullying (Part 3 of Article 173-4 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The largest number of bullies were prosecuted under this part of the article - 51 decisions.
The anti-top also includes cases of bullying committed by a group or repeatedly by adolescents aged 14 to 16 (part 4 of Article 173-4 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).
The heads of educational institutions can also be held liable for failing to report cases of harassment - currently, the register contains 1 court case for this (part 5 of Article 173-4 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).
Most often, harassers are fined, but there are two court decisions in the register where correctional labor was imposed on offenders. Both cases occurred in 2019: the first in the Zhytomyr region and the second in the Kherson region. Corrective labor was assigned for a period of 20 hours.
For reference
Ukrainian legislation defines bullying or harassment as any violence, including online, that occurs against all participants in the educational process and harms the mental or physical health of the victim.
Liability for bullying in educational institutions in Ukraine was introduced in 2018 with the addition of Article 173-4 to the Code of Administrative Offenses. The law provides for two types of punishment: a fine of 850 to 3400 hryvnias and community service of 20 to 60 hours.
The perpetrators are administratively liable starting from the age of 16. Until then, their parents are responsible for their children's actions.
Heads of educational institutions are also responsible for silencing bullying incidents. For this, they can be fined or sent to corrective labor and deduct up to 20% of their earnings.