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RightsED: Child Rights - Activity sheet: Rights and wants

Child rights

 

Activity sheet: Rights and wants

  1. Provide students with picture cards from the Resource sheet: Human rights
    images    . Ask students to brainstorm which human rights could be associated
    with the pictures (eg. right to vote, right to education). Make a list of rights
    on the whiteboard (they may think of others).

  2. Each student independently selects the five rights that are the most
    important to him/her and explains why to their partner. Each pair then works
    together to complete a list of their shared top three rights.

  3. Each pair then shares their list with the class, and these lists are
    recorded on the board. From this, construct a top three list for the class.
    (This could be done as a tallying
    exercise).

  • Was it difficult to choose some rights over others?
  • How did you decide which rights were more important than others?
  • How much difference/ similarity is there between student choices?
  • What are some reasons for those differences?

  1. Provide students with the Worksheet: Rights and wants. Students work
    in pairs to discuss the statements on this worksheet and decide whether each
    statement is a RIGHT or a WANT. The goal is to encourage students to give their
    immediate responses to the statements, as there are not necessarily always right
    or wrong answers.

  2. After completing this list, students share their answers with the class and
    explain why they think each statement is either a RIGHT or a WANT.

Note: Most of the statements could be argued to be a
right by law, except where the student has breached those rights. New clothes,
our own bedroom and the choice of going to school are wants, and as such would
depend on consultation with parents/ guardians. Students should be encouraged to
review the child friendly version of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
to determine how the rights could be linked.

Extension

Students decide who is responsible for protecting each of the rights (eg.
themselves, their parents, their teachers, or government). Students could then
either brainstorm or research ideas about what other RIGHTS children have
(depending on course requirements).

Research

A research task is suggested on the worksheet. Possible questions for
discussion (before or after research activity) could include:

  • Do all children have their rights met?
  • Which children might not have their rights protected? Why / why not?