Compasito - Manual on Human Rights Education for Children
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General Human Rights Gender Equality
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26. Rights Mobile

I’m proud to show my rights for all to see!

Themes General human rights, Gender equality

Level of complexity Level 2

Age 10-13 years

Duration 120-180 minutes

Group size 1-20 children

Type of activity Creative activity

Overview Children construct hanging mobiles (see example at the end of the activity) showing the rights most important to them.

Objectives • To discuss the content and meaning of basic rights
• To discover which rights are respected in your own environment
• To explore gender differences in relation rights

Preparation • Practise making a mobile to master the techniques.
• Have an example of a mobile to show children what you mean.
• Write out the short version of the ten rights on a flipchart or blackboard.
• Cut out shapes of people.

Materials • White cardboard paper cut into the shapes of a person
• Colouring materials (e.g. wax crayons, paints, markers)
• Blue, white and red paper strips, 3 of each colour per child
• Flipchart or blackboard for listing rights
• Small, light sticks (wooden, plastic or metal), 20 centimetres long
• Thin string
• Tape, glue or a stapler; drawing pins or small nails
• Scissors
• Optional: magazine for cut-out pictures

Instructions

  1. Introduce the activity by showing the children an example of a mobile and explaining that they are going to create a human rights mobile (see the illustration).
  2. Ask the children to spend a few minutes in pairs listing all the things that are important to them in their lives (e.g. family, friends, food, home, school, play).
  3. Give each child a blank cut-out of a person. Ask them to write their name on the back and decorate the shape, which should symbolize themselves.
  4. Begin your explanation by emphasizing that everyone needs all human rights and that we cannot pick and choose among them. However, for their mobiles, they will show the rights that matter the most to them personally. Then give each child three red, three blue and three white paper strips. Explain that red means ‘most important’, blue ‘important’ and white ‘less important’.
  5. Show the children the flipchart with the list of rights. Then read the child-friendly version of the rights and discuss the meaning of each article. Ask the children what they think the article means and elicit specific examples for each right. When you have finished, ask the children to look at the list of rights and decide which are the most important to them and write them out on the red strips; then ask them to write the important ones on the blue strips, and the less important ones on the white strips. Explain that although every child has all these rights, for this activity they must choose the nine rights that are most important to them.
  6. Once all the children have written the nine rights on their nine coloured paper strips, explain how to make a mobile. Demonstrate how to create balance in the mobile.
  7. Hang the mobiles somewhere clearly visible, for example, from the ceiling.

Debriefing and Evaluation

  1. When all the mobiles have been created, use the grid below to analyse the ranking of rights. Discuss the results by asking questions such as these:
    • Which rights seem to be the most important to our group? How can you explain this?
    • Which rights seem to be the least important to our group? How can you explain this?
    • Which rights are the most important for you? Do your personal priorities different from the group’s? How can you explain this?
    • Is there a difference between the priorities of boys and girls? How can you explain this?
    • Can you think of other groups who might have different priorities from yours (e.g. disabled children, refugees, ethnic minorities, adults)?
    • Are all these rights respected in our community?
  2. Debrief the activity by asking question such as these:
    • What do you feel about the activity?
    • Was it hard to prioritise the rights?
    • Which part did you enjoy doing most? Why?
    • Did anything surprise you?
  3. Link the activity to general human rights by asking questions such as these:
    • What is a right?
    • Why is it important to have all our human rights and not just those that are our favourites?
    • Do boys and girls have different rights?
    • Do adults have different rights?
    • Do you think all the children in the world have the same rights? Why or why not?
    • What can we do to make sure that all the children in the world have the same reality?

Suggestions for follow-up

  • The activity ‘Most Important for Whom?’, p. 118 , further develops the concept of the interdependence of rights.

Ideas for action

  • Contact local organizations that work for the most highly rated rights and explore ways to join their activities.
  • The children may rate some rights as less important because they are unfamiliar. Learn more about some of these rights and explore how they are important in your community.
  • Hang the mobiles along with explanations written by the children about their most important rights as an exhibition in a public place (e.g. library, post office, school corridors). Use the exhibition to celebrate Human Rights Day, December 10, or some other holiday (See the activity ‘A Human Rights Calendar’, p. 60).

Tips for the facilitator

  • Emphasize that neither we nor our government can pick and choose among our human rights. We all need all our human rights all the time! Clarify that this exercise asks the children only to rank the rights that are most important to them personally. Especially stress this concept of interdependence of rights in Step 3 of the Instructions and Question 1 of the Debriefing and Evaluation section.
  • Make a small mobile yourself in advance and experiment with weights and distances to understand how to balance it, and the best ways to connect the papers to the strings and sticks, using tape, glue or staples.
  • You may choose other rights from the CRC that you find appropriate for your group.

Variations:

  • Extend this activity over a longer period. Each child could also make a mobile of the community, Europe or the world.
  • Give the children nine strips but offer them more than nine rights to choose from.
  • Ask the children to design and cut out their own personal shapes.
  • Ask the children to decorate the coloured strips with drawings or cut-out pictures that represent that right.
  • Make a huge mobile for greater visual impact.
  • Depending on the size of your group, the available time and the number of facilitators, the children can work individually or in small groups. If you work in groups, you might divide boys from girls to see what sex differences arise.

Adaptations:

  • For younger children: Facilitators may need help with the manual tasks of this activity.
  • For older children: Ask them to make mobiles in small groups where each person has to agree with what is put on the mobile. The debriefing questions would also then have to include questions concerning the group work and process of deciding on the final mobile.

Rights mobile

 

sample list of rights

The following grid can be used to define the total ‘score’ of each Right. Give 3 points to Red Rights, 2 points to Blue Rights and 1 to the remaining white Rights.

Some Human Rights

Girls

Boys

Total scores

Final ranking

Every child has the right to protection.

       

Every child has the right to education.

       

Every child has the right to healthcare.

       

Every child has the right to free time activities and playing.

       

Every child has the right to a name and a nationality.

       

Every child has the right to choose his/her own religion.

       

Every child has the right to information.

       

Every child has the right to form an association.

       

Every child has the right to live in a house with his/her family.