UNICEF has launched Right Runner, a fast-paced mobile game application to inspire, inform and empower children and young people on their rights. The first-of-its-kind game commemorates World Children’s Day and 30 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child – the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RivBqQQerqw[/embedyt]
“The most memorable way children and young people can learn about their rights are by playing. Thirty years after the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, this new mobile app provides children and young people with a fun, innovative and interactive tool to empower them to become agents of change on issues that affect them.”
Bernt Aasen UNICEF Regional Director of UNICEF for Latin America and the Caribbean
The game – created in collaboration with UNICEF, Nexus studios and young people across Latin American and the Caribbean – is featured in an endless-runner format with five levels. Each level focuses on a different right including rights to play, to learn, to live in a clean and safe environment, to live free from violence and to be heard – all of which are detailed in the Convention. The game is available to download for free on the Apple Store and Google Play.
Right Runner takes the player on a journey, skateboarding through an obstacle-ridden old town, parkouring their way to school, running to safety during extreme flooding, jumping and sliding in a dangerous city, before rising to the top of a mountain for the final level, which harnesses the player’s own voice.
In order for players to claim and defend their rights, the characters must overcome barriers and engage with other characters in the game along the way. The gameplay is set in countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.
“We were inspired by all of the young people around the world fighting for change. Right Runner became a celebration of every kid’s power to fight for their rights and be an agent for change,”
Deborah Casswell, Creative Director of Nexus Studios
Over the past three decades, the Convention has achieved immense progress for children. However, many children, often the most vulnerable, are yet to feel its impact. All children and young people have rights no matter where they live, or who they are.
Latin America and the Caribbean is still one of the most unequal regions in the world, where barriers persist for many disadvantaged and excluded girls and boys, preventing them from accessing social services and protection.
Data show around 2 in 5 children in the region are denied at least one of their rights. Approximately 72 million children aged 0 to 14 live in poverty, 12.6 million children and adolescents are out of school.
