The Backdrop
Posted by IPAcommunications on October 19, 2010
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, approved by the UN in 1989 and ratified by almost every country in the world, is a benchmark against which a nation’s treatment of its children can be measured. It has not only led to great improvements in the protection and enhancement of the basic rights of children through policies, programs and services but it is also a visionary document that is influencing the way we think about children.
This remarkably comprehensive treaty not only incorporates what has been thought of children’s rights but also demands that the world think more deeply about children’s position as citizens and more broadly about their development than is commonly the case. It asks that we look holistically at children’s lives and hear their own perspectives on issues affecting them.
As a result it is leading many nations to address elements of children’s lives that have hitherto been ignored but that represent our fundamental humanity. One of these – at the heart of children’s lives everywhere – is the right to play.
Research supports that play contributes to brain development, creates flexibility, enhances creativity and builds resilience to stress. IPA believes that adults need to ensure that the physical and social environments in which children live are supportive of their play, otherwise their survival, well-being and development may be compromised.
While the industrialized world faces some major problems in providing a suitable range of environments and sufficient time for children to play freely, the majority of the world’s children face hazards such as polluted water, open sewer systems, over-crowded cities, and dangerously congested streets as well as degrees of social insecurity.
By far the most serious constraint to children’s free play globally – because it has a direct bearing on all others – is the lack of appreciation of its value by most adults and this of course includes governments. IPA has undertaken a campaign to promote the value of children’s play worldwide.
