Exploring Children’s Rights

Children should know what rights they have, but they should also learn how to appreciate and to use them. To achieve this, schools must allow for a wide range of learning experiences in children’s rights education. Children understand and appreciate their rights by using them, both in school and in everyday life. To encourage children to do so, the challenge for the teacher is to create a setting that is governed by the spirit of democracy and human rights.

This manual has been designed for teachers who are looking for tools to teach children’s rights to pupils in the 1^st to the 9^th year of compulsory education. The manual follows a spiral curriculum in order for the children to explore their rights year by year.

The features of this manual include:

• A short introduction with information on the conceptual framework and on learning by example.
• Nine small projects of four lessons each for pupils in their first nine years of school.
• Detailed lesson descriptions and plans.
• Task-based approach.
• Appendix with a range of resources (including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and an illustrated version of the Convention) and background information on children’s rights.