The goal of the simulation game is to raise understanding of the importance of human rights in everyday life and show the advantages of applying a human rights-based approach to the school environment. The experience gained in the simulation game shows its participants their importance in developing school community, as well as leads to a more active and effective participation. The simulation game can be conducted with a group of 9 to 32 participants and over a time span of 90 minutes.
The simulation game is set in a fictional school that was created during the ongoing school reform. Previous school rules should be revised and updated in order to correspond to the new challenges. The participants of the simulation game represent three groups: students, school employees, and parents. Throughout different stages of discussions and negotiations, participants analyse existing school rules according to the interests of their roles, and to their compliance with human rights and democratic principles of participation. After the final voting, the school community will get a new set of commonly agreed school rules.
During the simulation game, a variety of questions and issues are addressed. Among others, how to implement human and children rights on local level, for example, in school life. The setting of a solution-seeking discussions also allows participants to learn about negotiation methods and ways to reach consensus while being confronted with other participants that have different opinions.
