Reviewed by: Christina Clark
This CD-Rom is intended to be a comprehensive training package on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It is designed for facilitators conducting CRC training workshops for a wide variety of audiences, including policy-makers, NGO support staff, youth workers, early years workers, teachers, social workers, and children and young people. Divided into four sections, the CD-Rom contains information, factsheets and innovative group exercises exploring the background to the CRC, content of the Convention, implementation of the CRC's key provisions, and working with the Convention in policy and practice.
The real strength of this CD-rom lies in its wealth of suggestions for participatory activities (39 in all), which attempt to make the Convention 'real' to a wide variety of audiences. As its title implies, this is a training kit -- i.e. it provides useful resources, including overhead transparencies, hand-outs and suggestions and materials for group exercises in training workshops. It also contains sample programmes, suggesting factsheets and exercises for the facilitator to use, depending on the intended audience and the time available. While some basic guidelines on running a workshop are provided, facilitators are expected to have training expertise and a basic familiarity with children's rights.
All of the training resources are provided in PDF format using Acrobat reader. While internal links directing the user to documents referred to in the text facilitate navigation, the CD-Rom may prove difficult to use for those with limited computer skills. Moreover, since materials are provided in electronic format, users must have access to a printer to prepare for group sessions and activities.
Key documents relating to child rights (such as the text of the CRC) are included in each section. In addition, there is a further resources section, which contains a comprehensive list of websites, as well as an annotated bibliography of key documents organised by subject. However, the latter does not include PDFs of, or internet links to, these documents, so some users, particularly those in developing countries, may have difficulty accessing them. Moreover, the resource section does not include PDFs of the support materials included throughout the course, so users have to go back to the relevant sections to find these resource materials.
Given the technological constraints noted above, as well as the £19.99 price tag, the CD-Rom seems to be most appropriate for international NGOs looking for training resources to promote understanding and awareness of the CRC amongst their staff, stakeholders and beneficiaries. Teachers and childcare professionals could also benefit from the resources and activities provided for group work with children and young people. However, since the CD-Rom is a training kit aimed at group facilitators, it is not appropriate for individuals seeking a course on child rights.
Indeed, this kit is not about child rights in general, but rather specifically aimed at the key provisions of one legal document, the CRC. While some of the preliminary sections provide context to the CRC's development and relate it to broad human rights treaties, the materials do not really interrogate and problematise the principles and philosophy behind the CRC. For example, discussions of cultural relativism do not emerge in the key resource materials and are only brought out indirectly in certain group activities, which not all facilitators may actually use.
In sum, this CD-Rom sets out to do exactly what the title suggests: it provides comprehensive training materials specifically on the provisions and implementation of the UN CRC. It therefore fulfils a necessary and useful purpose, but users should not expect it to move beyond the goals and uses the authors intended.
Information on how to order the CD-Rom is available on Save the Children's website: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/scuk/jsp/resources/details.jsp?id=2038...
