UNICEF launches Right Runner game to inspire players to take action on child rights

NEW YORK/PANAMA, 20 November 2019 – UNICEF has today 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 today’s 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.

“The most memorable way children and young people can learn about their rights is by playing,” said Bernt Aasen UNICEF Regional Director of UNICEF for Latin America and the Caribbean a.i. “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.”

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 kids power to fight for their rights and be an agent for change,” said 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.

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Notes to editors:

Right Runner was developed in collaboration between UNICEF Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office and London and LA based film and immersive production company Nexus Studios. The team of artists at Nexus designed and created a visual language that would resonate with the players and effectively bring the CRC to life, creating and bringing together a cast of game characters and visual and audio palette that draws on regional elements.

The team of artists at Nexus created a visual language that would resonate with the players and effectively bring the CRC to life, creating and bringing together a cast of game characters and visual and audio palette that draws on regional elements.

The app was tested by young people – who were involved in its development – including UNICEF’s Global Youth Council, tasked with advising the organization on its work affecting children and adolescents. In addition, 70 students from the Nord Anglia Education Network Schools tested and provided feedback on the game. The voices heard in the game are from students of one of these schools which regularly collaborate with UNICEF in child rights education initiatives such as the World Largest Lesson.