Realizing Article 31 through General Comment No. 17: Overcoming Challenges and the Quest for an Optimum Play Environment

 2018 Children, Youth and Environments Children, Youth and Environments 28(2), 2018 Realizing Article 31 through General Comment No. 17: Overcoming Challenges and the Quest for an Optimum Play Environment John H. McKendrick Glasgow School for Business and Society, Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow, Scotland Janet Loebach Centre for Addiction and Mental Health London, Canada Theresa Casey International Play Association: Promoting the Child's Right to Play Edinburgh, Scotland Citation: McKendrick, J. H., Loebach, J., & Casey, T. (2018). Realizing article 31 through General Comment No. 17: Overcoming challenges and the quest for optimum play environment. Children, Youth and Environments, 28(2), 1-11. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=chilyoutenvi Global and Local Frames of Reference in Children's Play Although we should recognize that play thrives in adulthood (Dobson & McKendrick, 2018) and there are moments and situations when children are deprived of play (Brown & Webb, 2005; Hughes, 2013), it is widely understood that children's lives are infused with play and that play is of central importance in our understanding of childhood (Lester & Russell, 2010). Such everyday understandings have been bolstered in recent years with the articulation of global statements on children's right to play, most notably in article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC; UNICEF, 1989), the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's General Comment No. 17 on article 31 of the UNCRC (2013), and the International Play Association's declarations on the child's right to play (1977) and the importance of play (2014). Global frames of reference for children's play are also evident through the work of organizations such as the International Play Association: Promoting the Child's Right to Play1 , Child in the City2 and Right to Play International3 , and the impetus to global scholarship afforded by learned publications such as Children, Youth and Environments4 , the International Journal of Play5 and the International Journal of Play Therapy6 . Realizing Article 31 through General Comment No. 17: Overcoming Challenges… 2 Supporting this global endeavor are many organizations and institutions serving world regions (e.g., European Play Work Association7 ; Playright Children's Play Association, Hong Kong8 ), nations (e.g., American Journal of Play9 , Play Africa10 , Play Australia11 ) and localities (e.g., Beyond Association in Lebanon12 ; Play Highland13 in Scotland). Through their work, they might be considered to be pursuing what Roland Robertson (1995) understood as glocalization, the fusion of universalizing and particularizing tendencies in the continual creation of new realities grounded in place. The local adaption of the global principles that have been developed to assert the child's right to play is explored in this collection of papers; specifically, in relation to overcoming challenges to attain what might be considered an optimum play environment. General Comment No. 17 The play sector welcomed the UNCRC and article 31 has been widely cited and used to promote play in children's lives (Davey & Lundy, 2010). However, fresh impetus to strengthen the play imperative in children's lives has since emerged with growing concerns that children's right to play is not being realized by government, there is a lack of access to safe and engaging play environments, and there are what might be understood as threats to the volume and nature of play (such as urbanization, commercialization of play provision, persistence of child labor, growth of crisis situations, and increasing pre-occupation with educational outcomes) (IPA, 2013). In response, the Committee on the Rights of the Child produced General Comment No. 17 (2013) on the Right of the Child to Rest, Leisure, Play, Recreational Activities, Cultural Life and the Arts (art. 31) to (i) enhance understanding of the importance of article 31; (ii) promote respect for the rights articulated under article 31; and (iii) outline the obligations of agents (including governments) under the UNCRC. General Comment No. 17 comprises six substantive sections (following an Introduction and specification of Objectives and preceding comment on Dissemination), which include: articulating the significance of article 31 in children's lives, outlining the legal basis of article 31, situating article 31 in the broader context of the UNCRC, identifying groups requiring particular attention, and outlining State parties' obligations. Our collection of papers for Children...

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