Children’s rights assessment

Objective: To learn about the situation for children from a rights-based perspective, and which rights they feel they are not accessing since the emergency

Age group: 10+

How many children? 10-20

Time: 1 hour

Resources needed: Flipchart paper, markers, children’s rights cards, category cards

As a group, ask children to name as many of their rights as they can. Explain that there are 4 categories of rights:

survival (my basic needs are met)
protection (I am kept safe from harm)
development (I access education and experience that enables me to grow up well)
participation (I take part in society and my voice is listened to)

Give out the 16 rights cards (as per the table below) to children and ask them to try to put each into the right category. Check that everyone agrees, and explain the rights.

Survival	Protection	Development	Participation
To be alive	No hurt, neglect or abuse	To be cared for by my parents, or those who will care for me best, in a family if possible	To have a name and an identity
To have healthcare	Not to work too much or be exploited	To have a good quality education	Not to be discriminated against e.g. because of my religion, nationality, gender, economic status, or disability
To have enough and healthy food and clean water	Not to be used as a soldier in wars	To play and rest	For people to listen to what I think
To have a safe place to live	To be helped if I have been hurt, neglected or badly treated	Special care and education if I have a disability	To practice my religion, language and culture and be free to meet with other children

Put a sheet of flipchart paper by each rights category. Divide children into 4 groups and give them 5 minutes to write down ways that children in their community do not access these rights. After 5 minutes, the groups move onto another category of rights and add anything else they can think of until each group has written on each paper.

Put blank flipchart paper up on the wall and ask children to suggest which problems are most seriously affecting children’s safety in their community. Write them on one edge of the paper. Give each child 4 sticky dots and ask them to vote for the most important problems by distributing their stickers amongst the issues.