In real life, being a child in court could risk to be „game over”. At some point, the child didn’t knew how to make use of his/her rights and obligations, thereby becoming a suspect, a witness, a criminal or a victim.
A consortia of 6 partners – Terre des hommes Lausanne Hungary (The Applicant) , National Network for Children Bulgaria, Brave Phone Croatia, Terre des hommes Italy, Terre des hommes Romania and Victim Support U. K. – wants to turn this situation around by helping children and youngsters become aware of theirs rights and obligations and enable them to use this know-how for their own protection.
This is the reason why „Right(s) Court for Children” came to life, a project funded by the EC (JUST/2015/Action Grants) which will produce a simulation game, staged and designed by children and experts, where game players learn to master their rights&obligations as tools to escape riskfull situations.
At 6 months after its official start, the „Right(s) Court for Children” project is already assembling „experience-designers” in Romania.
To this end, the first National Advisory Group (NAG) was set up, involving experts from the Police- Institute of Research and Prevention of Criminality, General Direction of Child Protection, FONPC (Federation of Child Protection Nongovernamental Organizations) and Association Justice for Romania. On March 9th, the NAG members met up and brainstormed on the possible outcomes of the project, visualising what could be reached through the online game. Due to their input, it was established that the simulation game should be developped on different levels of difficulty, making it accessible for many youth found in difficult situations. At the next meetings, NAG will be enlarged with experts from other state institutions as well, interested in bringing their added value on the project.
Also in March, the Romanian project team organized consultation meetings with teenagers from the Technological High School „Dimitri Gusti” (Bucharest), School „George Calinescu” Nr. 148 (Bucharest) and the National College „Mihai Eminescu” (Constanta). The consultations with teenagers as well as the preliminary results of Knowledge and Attitude Survey applied to 52 pupils showed among others, that youngsters would be most interested in case studies and they need to understand better the legal aspects of penal procedures. In addition to this, by working in teams, youngsters were able to generate various game scenarios that are mostly connected to work exploitation, online bullying, domestic violence and other forms of abuse upon children. In all cases imagined by them, children were victims or witnesses. Also, youngsters recommeded that the different scenarios should describe possible „game developments” generated by one decision or another – ”That’s the best way to learn out of it!”.
In the coming few months, the youth consultation groups are ready to go „to the next level”: visits to the court, police or other juridical offices, for whom they have already prepared their questions. Personally, the only issue that I have faced so have a peek at this hyperlink far is that it didn’t seem to want to show a list of unread mails through the mail app. We’ll keep you posted on their findings and on the way „Right(s) Court for Children” is being developed. You can also follow the story on:.
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Project funded by the European Comission through JUST / 2015 / Action Grants.
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