Beyond Work and Play: Decolonising Children’s Right to Leisure

Abstract

In this research note, I unpack the way children’s right to leisure and play has been understood and formulated in contemporary child rights discourses. Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) recognises children’s right to “rest and leisure” including their right to participate in age-appropriate play and recreational activities. I argue that this ‘right to leisure’ discourse within UNCRC reinforces a liberal, unitary model of citizenship that locates the individual child as the locus of rights. Instead, I connect contemporary debates around difference-centred model of children’s citizenship and living rights with decolonial approaches to leisure and vernacular rights cultures to offer a critical appraisal of children’s right to leisure. These inclusive approaches can offer new avenues for theorising and researching children’s right to leisure.