Human Rights International

Thailand – learning through play – the “Human Rights Games”

Civic education is most effective when it is learned through play (“gamification”). The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom proved this in Thailand with a game called “Sim Democracy”, a board game for democracy.In lightof the game’s success, our offices worked with the Thai Ministry of Justice to create two more human rights games: “Rights Cards” and “Rights Bingo”. These games are designed for children and aim to teach human rights in a way that is tangible and which embeds them in the context of the players’ daily life and surroundings.“Rights Bingo” is aimed at primary school children. It is a combination of a puzzle, Memoryand Bingo. “Rights  Cards” is aimed at secondary school pupils, but can be played with university students and at events too. The game consists of “scenarios for human rights abuses” that require
solution cards. The team that solves the most scenarios is the winner. The games confront the players with various critical scenarios from daily life and Thai society. In playing these games, young people especially are motivated to discuss human rights issues more openly, to scrutinise them and to play a more active role in supporting
them. Since the end of 2015, we have shared the games with our partners all over Thailand. We have taken them to schools, universities and civil rights organisations to use at summer camps and other, similar events. In 2018, a total of approximately3,000 students played the games.