Restorative Practice in Schools: A Human Right
Restorative Practice in Schools: A Human Right
Why upholding students’ rights means embedding restorative practice at the heart of education
Human Rights: What Are We Really Talking About?
At its core, the concept of human rights is simple: every person deserves to be treated with dignity, to be safe, to be heard, and to have opportunities to grow and thrive. These rights aren’t earned — they’re inherent. They apply in courtrooms and communities, hospitals and homes, and yes — they apply in schools.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) lays out these protections clearly. Children have the right to education. They have the right to be protected from harm. They have the right to express themselves and be taken seriously in matters that affect them. These aren’t optional extras. They are legal and ethical obligations for the institutions that serve young people — including schools.
But how often do we actually view school policies, classroom interactions, or behaviour management through a human rights lens? What does it mean — in practical terms — to uphold a child’s right to dignity and participation in a school day shaped by bells, rules, uniform codes, and consequences?
It’s here that restorative practice becomes more than a model. It becomes a moral imperative.
The School as a Rights-Based Community
When we walk into a school, we’re entering a system. Systems can uphold rights, or they can erode them — often unintentionally. A school can be a place where young people feel deeply seen, valued, and protected. Or it can be a place where control is prioritised over connection, where students feel policed rather than heard.
The Save the Children report Putting Children First names this tension plainly: “A rights-based youth justice system must treat children as children — not as problems to be fixed, punished or excluded.” The same principle applies in schools. When policies focus on compliance and punitive discipline, we risk framing children’s struggles as defiance or pathology, rather than unmet needs.
A rights-respecting school is not simply one with well-meaning policies or shiny values posters. It is a place where every interaction — every circle, every redirect, every consequence — communicates: You matter. Your voice counts. You belong here even when things go wrong.
This is where restorative practice becomes the language — and the living expression — of human rights.
Restorative Practice: The Practical Language of Rights
When schools adopt a restorative approach, they’re doing more than changing how they respond to behaviour. They’re creating a cultural shift — one that echoes the values enshrined in human rights declarations. This includes:
the right to participate
the right to be treated fairly
the right to learn in an environment that supports emotional and social wellbeing.
What does this look like in real life?
A student swears at a teacher in class. The traditional script might involve removal, detention, and a report. A restorative approach still holds the student accountable — but through a different lens. Instead of asking "Why did you do that?" the teacher might ask, "What was going on for you in that moment?" Instead of focusing only on punishment, the conversation centres on impact, repair, and future behaviour. It invites reflection and responsibility, not shame and isolation.
When Schools Don’t Honour Rights
When schools operate with a purely compliance-driven mindset, students can be excluded not just from class — but from belonging.
Zero-tolerance policies, public shaming, suspensions and exclusions — these approaches may appear to maintain order in the short term, but they often create deeper harm. Research shows that students who are excluded from school are more likely to disengage from learning, experience mental health challenges, and enter the youth justice system (Rudolph et al, 2024). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students with disabilities, and those from marginalised backgrounds are disproportionately impacted.
When students are removed from the classroom without meaningful support or opportunity to repair, they receive a dangerous message: there is something wrong with you; you don’t belong here.
In Victoria, a proposed government policy would allow children as young as 14 to be tried and sentenced as adults for serious crimes, with life sentences on the table. (The Guardian, 2025)
This policy starkly illustrates how, when we abandon the idea of children as children — with rights, developmental needs and potential for repair — we move away from education as a site of human rights and toward retribution as default.
From a rights-based school perspective, this should raise red flags. If the system outside our school gates is shifting to "adult time for violent crime" for young people, then how prepared are our schools to model the opposite: environments where dignity, voice, repair and growth are central to how we respond when things go wrong?
Restorative Practice as a Rights-Based Intervention
Restorative practice is often misunderstood as leniency. In reality, it is one of the most structured, intentional, and accountable approaches schools can take to address wrongdoing and harm. It does not excuse poor behaviour. It invites young people into a process of taking responsibility, understanding impact, and making meaningful repair.
What sets it apart is that it does all this without compromising the dignity of the child.
Take, for example, a conflict between two students that escalates into verbal threats. In a punitive model, the aggressor might face suspension — often alone, with little understanding of their emotional drivers or the harm caused. In a restorative model, the students are supported to unpack what happened, explore the underlying emotions and scripts, and co-create a path to repair — with support, not shame.
So, What Does This Mean for Schools?
If we accept that restorative practice is a matter of human rights, then we must also accept that its implementation cannot be optional.
This means schools need:
Values-aligned professional learning that moves beyond “tools” and into mindset, theory, and systemic change.
Relational routines embedded in every classroom — student voice is honoured in daily check-ins, co-created agreements, and reflection spaces.
Policy alignment that supports relational responses to harm, not just procedural ones.
Leadership commitment to a whole-school culture of belonging, not just pockets of practice.
Rights-respecting schools do not just happen. They are built — slowly, deliberately, and together.
If you're reading this as a teacher or school leader, you might be thinking:
“What about my rights? What about the rights of other students to learn without disruption?”
These are fair and important questions.
Restorative practice is not about placing the needs of one student above others. It’s about recognising that everyone’s rights matter — the right to feel safe, the right to teach and learn without disruption, the right to be treated with dignity.
The key difference is in how we uphold those rights.
A punitive approach often removes a student without addressing the root cause of their behaviour. It may bring short-term relief, but long-term it can deepen disconnection and increase the likelihood of repeated harm.
A restorative approach seeks to repair harm, not ignore it. It supports the student who caused disruption and the students and staff impacted. It gives space for accountability and for needs to be named — including yours.
In fact, restorative work often brings validation and resolution for teachers too. When a student reflects on their impact, hears how it affected you, and commits to change — that’s not letting them off the hook. That’s inviting them to grow.
So yes, your rights matter. It’s not a zero-sum game.
International Restorative Justice Week invites us to ask not just how we respond to wrongdoing, but how we design systems that centre dignity in the first place.
Every student — regardless of background, behaviour, or ability — has a right to be educated in a place where they feel safe, heard, and valued. That right doesn’t disappear when they make a mistake.
Restorative practice reframes accountability. It holds children to high expectations and offers them high support. And in doing so, it upholds the most foundational human right of all in education: the right to belong.
