Balancing Child Protection and Human Rights in School Bullying Cases: Developing a Legal Balancing Model within the Indonesian Legal System
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38035/jlph.v6i6.3758Keywords:
Bullying, Child Protection, Human Rights, Restorative Justice, Constitutional BalancingAbstract
School bullying has become a significant legal and educational issue in Indonesia because it involves the constitutional rights of both child victims and child perpetrators. Although Indonesian law provides comprehensive legal protection for children, limited legal scholarship has examined how child protection obligations and human rights guarantees should be balanced within a single legal framework. This study aims to analyse the legal conflict between these competing interests and to develop an integrated framework for handling school bullying cases. The research employed a normative juridical approach supported by a socio-legal perspective through the analysis of constitutional provisions, statutory regulations, international legal instruments, judicial decisions, and scholarly literature. The findings indicate that the principal challenge lies not in the absence of legal regulation but in harmonising the protection of victims with the rights of child offenders to rehabilitation, education, and due process. This study proposes a Legal Balancing Model integrating constitutional child protection, proportionality, restorative justice, educational continuity, institutional accountability, and the best interests of the child. The proposed model represents the study's principal novelty and provides normative guidance for policymakers, educational institutions, and law enforcement agencies in resolving school bullying cases while ensuring justice, child protection, and respect for human rights.
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