Activities

To build familiarity with the CRC among children and ARISE learners

To equip ARISE learners with a useful tool for interactive children’s rights learning

To help children relate human rights to everyday life

To raise awareness of human rights issues

Board game, children’s rights, dice, forward and backward, rights cards

This activity is initially meant to be implemented by children between 8 and 13 years old. The children may play the game by themselves but the facilitator -meaning the ARISE learner/teacher/educator etc.- is needed to support them and to run the debriefing. This is the reason this board game is included in the current curriculum: to familiarize teachers with the game before playing with students.Every board game may host 2-6 children and the duration of each session shall be 45 minutes. The current activity is an adaptation of the ‘’Do you know your rights’’ board game, included in ‘’Compasito: Manual For Human Rights Education For Children ’’.

Check the answers in advance to be sure you are familiar with the issues.

• Copy the board provided as a handout.
• Copy the instructions and list of ‘’Neutralizing Rights’’ on one sheet.
• Copy the rights cards and the penalty cards, one set for each group playing.
• Copy the child-friendly CRC (see ANNEXES)
• Materials:
  • Game board, pieces and dice
  • Game cards (included below under ‘’Solution’’)
  • Sheet with instructions and list of ‘’Neutralizing Rights’’

1. Divide children into groups of two to six and give each group a board, a dice, a set of the rights cards and the penalty cards, a sheet with instructions and a list of ‘Neutralizing Rights’. Also give a copy of the child-friendly CRC to each player. Game cards will inform players about what to do.
2. Explain the game:

• • Roll the dice. The child with the highest number is the first player.
  • The first player rolls the dice and moves forward according to the number on the dice.
  • If a player falls into a coloured square, the player takes a card, reads it aloud and follows the instructions. These could be to go forwards, go backwards, or miss a turn.
  • However, a card that says to go backwards can be ‘neutralized’ if the player can name the article of the CRC that is violated. In that case the player gets a bonus step forward.
  • Continue with the next person on the left of the first player.
  • The first player to reach the end is the winner but the game should continue until every player has reached the end.

Discuss the activity, asking questions such as these:

• What did you think of this game?
• Did you learn anything new about human rights? About the world around you?
• Did some of the situations seem strange or unfamiliar?
• Can you think of situations like them, both where human rights are respected and where they are violated?

• The children playing can use the list of ‘’neutralising rights’’ and the CRC if they need to, or the facilitator can use the list.
• Adaptation for younger children: Omit identifying articles of the CRC to ‘neutralize’ backward steps.
• Because the children will have many questions about the cases given, a second facilitator is recommended if several groups are playing this game at once.
• Children might play the game in teams to help each other identify ‘’neutralizing rights’’.

Please download the questions and correct answer by clicking here. The included solutions are indicative. The facilitator may expand more on them or differentiate the solution/answer. Do an open discussion without feeling stressed about accurate legal definitions and rationales.