Play – a forgotten right? A campaign for UN recognition of children’s right to play, to set the standards and draw attention to the obligations of governments.
International Play Association- Promoting the Child's Right to Play
International
Success Achieved
Play – a forgotten right? A campaign for UN recognition of children’s right to play, to set the standards and draw attention to the obligations of governments.
As an international non-governmental organization, IPA members from around the world share a deep concern that child’s right to play is often being overlooked. There is a growing evidence of play deprivation that affects the healthy development of children. Children’s play is endangered by unfavourable developments in children’s living conditions almost everywhere in the world, e.g. city planning, pressure for educational achievement, natural and human disaster, etc.
Discovery
IPA’s purpose is to protect, preserve and promote the child’s right to play as a fundamental human right. Play is a fundamental and vital dimension of the pleasure of childhood. It is an essential component of children’s development. Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) recognises the right of every child to play, but children throughout the world face significant barriers in realizing this particular right.
Jacob Doek former chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child described article 31 as the “forgotten article” in his keynote speech at IPA World Conference Hong Kong in 2008. The urge for a global campaign for a UN General Comment on article 31 to instil effective changes worldwide was started. This initiative was quickly supported by all branches of IPA and other international organizations.
Objectives
The aim of the campaign was to harness the power of our worldwide network of members to effect a change at the highest level with regard to children’s right to play.
To mobilise a worldwide network of Article 31 (the aspect of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which encompasses children’s right to play) advocates and to harness expertise to raise awareness of the importance of play in the lives of children
To gather specific material demonstrating infringements of children’s right to play
To request that the UN issue guidance and make recommendations to Governments to ensure children’s play rights are met.
We aimed to raise awareness of the importance of Article 31 with States Parties (governments) government departments, civil society and the general public across the world through the drafting and adoption of a UN General Comment on Article 31. (A General Comment (GC) is an official document of the United Nations.)
This should lead to a better understanding of the child’s right to play and give support to advocate for the implementation of the right, which each state has agreed to realize.
Project Team
Core group to the drafting of the General Comment: Theresa Casey, Valerie Fronczek, Dr. Jan van Gils, Prof. Roger Hart, Dr SelimIltus
IPA Board, Council and members worldwide;
14 international partners organisations, implementing consultations and reviews
Eight international supporting organisations to the request for publication of the UN General Comment on the Right to Play
60 international experts on all aspects of children’s ‘article 31 rights’
Project Partners
The key campaign partner is Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF). BvLF has not only provided financial support, but also actively engaged in the campaign development. Their representative, Mr SelimIltus was part of the working group for continuous lobbying and support on the drafting and adoption of the GC. Their support has enabled us to commission the research and launch the global consultation.
IPA has also successfully invited seven international organizations to become co-signatories to IPA’s request for a GC:
Right to Play International
World Leisure Organization
International Pediatrics Association
International Council on Children’s Play
World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP)
International Toy Library Association
European Child Friendly Cities Network
Activities
Over a period of 3 years IPA undertook the huge underlying tasks of gathering information, evidence, carrying out research and building partnerships in order to achieve its objectives. IPA need to build a case for higher recognition for children’s play rights and in this in a number of ways.
To build the case for GC and sustainable impact, IPA has strategically driven the campaign at a number of levels:
Research on the importance of play to strengthen the case: Children’s Right to Play: Importance of Play in the Lives of Children Worldwide (Lester and Russell, 2009); Global Consultation project on Children’s Right to identify infringements of article 31 (2010): IPA implemented its Global Consultation Project through partnership working in eight cities- Tokyo, Beirut, Sofia, Bangkok, Mexico City, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Mumbai. It highlighted both common themes in play and specific barriers to play in particular locations.
Working group for continuous influencing and support on the drafting and adoption of the GC;
Engagement with children in six countries to participate in the drafting of the UN General Comment on article 31. (Sierra Leone, Scotland, Lebanon, Brazil, Kenya and Thailand). These consultations highlighted many groups of children who were ‘invisible’ in communities (particularly disabled children) and children for whom play was not a feature of their childhood years (particularly orphaned and displaced children).
A special issue of magazine on GC, a summary of the GC, a child-friendly version and a video to promote understanding and the use of GC.
IPA launched the GC in Geneva in September 2013. 67 delegates from 32 countries joined the celebration and committed to further advocate for play in their countries.
Child-friendly Version of the General Comment
The voice will continue as advocacy tools are made available on IPA website.
In short, the target was the adoption by the UN of GC on article 31. The campaign would also produce the above mentioned advocacy tools for widening the impact of the campaign to different parts of the world.
With the above achievement, the campaign has met its target. However, we realize that each individual countries will have their own challenges to meet before child’s right to play will actually be protected, preserved and promoted locally.
IPA will continue to support to further the mission, and thus we are continuously developing the advocacy tools into more languages for use. Teams of volunteer translators from amongst our membership make this task possible:
Summary of the General Comment – now available in English, Spanish and Chinese
Child-friendly versions of the GC – now available in English, Welsh, German, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese and Gaelic
PlayRights Magazine - Special Issue on General Comment
Video “This is Me: Article 31 and a Child’s Right to Play” – now available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish, and 7 other languages in process.
Special issue of the international Playrights Magazine
Challenges
Although IPA has an active and committed membership, it is not an association with large reserves of funds to draw on. It is run by members without permanent paid staff. Its main source of funds is membership fees to service basic running of the association. Children’s rights and the right to play specifically can be difficult to pin down, are not always well understood and therefore it can be difficult to attract funds at this level. IPA's main resource therefore was the passion and commitment of members.
In order to achieve our overall aim to ensure all children are able to exercise their right to play, requires actions all over the world by many individuals, agencies and organisations. IPA therefore recognised that the achievement of the UN General Comment was a hugely significant step, and that in order to achieve its potential, people way beyond our network need to be energised. Our challenge therefore is to continually reach out to help spark commitment and actions with a life of their own outside IPA.
The General Comments has highlighted the general challenges in the realization of article 31 and government’s obligations to respect, protect and fufil article 31 rights. It is a very positive documents as it suggests lots of practical ways for individual countries to follow up.
On another note, the General Comment has also listed children requiring particular attention, including girls, children living in poverty, children with disabilities, children in institutions, children from indigenous and minority communities, as well as children in situations of conflict, humanitarian and natural disasters. While continuing our support to local countries in implementing article 31, IPA finds its unique role in pursuing further for the realization of article 31 for children suffering from humanitarian disasters. The GC will again be our legal instrument and guide to fulfil the right to play for these children. The future will be positive, with the success of this campaign. We are confident that we can do more for children.
Achievements
This global campaign has successfully raised worldwide attention to this “forgotten right”. Its primary aim was to bring about a General Comment on article 31 from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. This aim was realised with its publication in 2013.
The UN Committee agreed that a General Comment (GC) on Article 31 was needed, and appointed IPA as the competent body to manage the drafting process. With this campaign, the greatest achievement is the adoption of GC in February 2013. A GC is an authoritative statement on the Rights of the Child, which gives guidance to governments and civil society organizations on how to appropriately implement the provisions of the Conventions. The GC was translated into 6 languages by the UN.
The GC has highlighted the significance of article 31 in children’s lives, clearly defined PLAY and governments’ obligations. Publication gives governments clear direction on how they are expected to ensure implementation of article 31 and standards to achieve. All states parties’ governments have to recognise their obligations and report periodically. The GC provides us with a strong legal instrument to promote, protect and fulfil this essential right for children. This has opened an opportunity for individual countries to renew their efforts together for the promotion of play for all children at all times in all places using the GC as the basis.
The GC has led to immediate recognition of child’s right to play, raising global awareness: it was published by the United Nations and addressed to every nation which has signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child (all but two of the worlds countries). It is now an integral element of the landscape of children’s rights and is a reference point for the standards expected of Governments worldwide. It has gone beyond pointing out obligations and has been used widely to inform advocacy for better policies around children’s play rights.
Success factors
Identifying the specific target to aim for, that would make a very big difference if achieved
Finding specific ways for members to become involved and asking them to help – which they did!
Recognising the scale of the challenge ahead and taking a collective decision to rise to it
Finding and working closely with key people – ‘champions’ - in the right places to exert influence
Building partnerships with organisations whose aims closely aligned with IPA’s goal
Keeping a vigilant eye on the overarching aim from start to finish
Wha twould we do differently?
In retrospect, we would have benefitted long term if we had built in a bigger focus on documentation of the project in terms of gathering really good visual images and filming and recording the processes (not just the results).
We also missed some opportunities to use the possibilities of social media to take our key messages out – once we were woken up to this once we saw what it could do. We would still like to write up and disseminate much of what we learned along the way.
Wider impact
There are many other changes made and new supports gained for example:
THE UN General Comment on Children’s Right to Play has created real opportunities around the world to influence and support policy, campaigns and develops for example: The Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF adopted Right to Play as 2013’s theme, with a series of local campaigns.
IPA has developed a more authoritative voice and receives many invitations to speak about the right to play in various for a and conferences for example to the annual meeting of European Network of Children’s Ombudsmen and Commissioners
The Toy Industries of Europe invited IPA to contribute regular writings in their European Blog
A growing number of organizations, both international and local, build on the GC and use IPA advocacy tools to promote child’s right to play.
