Holding governments to account for leisure rights: a collaborative research agenda

ABSTRACT

Leisure is recognized as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the World Leisure Organisation’s recently revised Charter for Leisure. However, it has been neglected in the UN’s mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation nation states’ compliance with human rights obligations under the terms of the relevant international treaties. Until very recently, leisure rights have also been neglected by the leisure research community. This paper documents the extent of this neglect and seeks to make a contribution to remedying it. This takes the form of an outline of a conceptual framework for assessing nation states’ performance in upholding leisure rights.

KEYWORDS:

• Leisure rights
• human rights
• Charter for Leisure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Article 13 is concerned with the right to freedom of movement, and therefore with tourism, which is a form of leisure. However, since it is covered by the WLO’s “sister” organization, the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), is overseen by the UN committee system responsible for CP rights and has its own tourism-related research literature, it is not discussed here. However, the concept of ‘social tourism’, or holidays for deprived groups, might be considered relevant (see McCabe & Diekmann, 2015).

2 In 2020, 25 member states of the UN had not ratified the ICESCR. Of these: 17 had a population of less than one million, constituting mainly small island states; six had neither signed or ratified the covenant (Bhutan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Sudan, United Arab Emirates), while two had signed but not ratified it (Cuba, U.S.A.), that is, it had not been endorsed by their legislative assemblies (https://indicators.ohchr.org/).

3 A paper adopting a similar approach to participation in cultural activity is currently under review.

4 Articles 16 and 17 of the ICESCR refer to the reporting obligations of ratifying states.

5 These are related to “sustainable development”, which is an area of UN activity separate from human rights, but the two concepts are clearly connected (Portolés & Dragićevic Šešić, 2017).

6 These documents, including states’ reports, are all available online at: www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/cescr under the major heading: “States Parties Reporting”.

7 While the standard model of a “state” would be a sovereign member of the UN, it could also be possible to apply the template to a sub-national area with a relatively independent legislative status, for example, a state or province in a federal system or a quasi-federal system such as the four countries which make up the UK.