Leisure and human rights: a sociological perspective on the World Leisure Organisation’s Charter for Leisure

ABSTRACT

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) declared leisure time and cultural participation to be human rights, but the idea of leisure rights has not featured significantly in the field of leisure studies, including the sociology of leisure. The recent revision of the World Leisure Organisation’s Charter for Leisure provides an opportunity to reconsider this omission. The article comprises five main sections: an introduction to the place of leisure in the UDHR and related treaties; an overview of the disciplinary contexts within which human rights have traditionally been conceptualized; an outline of the United Nations human rights system in international law and the obligations it places on member states; the WLO Charter for Leisure revision process and how it sought to align the charter more closely with the UN system; and a sociological perspective on the link between human rights and the study of leisure.

KEYWORDS:

• Charter for Leisure
• World Leisure Organisation
• human rights
• leisure rights
• sociology of leisure

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 This is an extended version of a presentation to the British Sociological Association Leisure and Recreation Study Group one-day on-line seminar: Leisure for All: Formulating the Right to Leisure as a Radical Demand for Democratic Citizenship, 21 January 2022, convened by Mark Turner, Alan Tomlinson and Gokben Demirbas.

2 Originally under the title of the World Leisure and Recreation Association.

3 Article 27 also refers to creative and scientific intellectual property rights, but this is not addressed in the Charter for Leisure or in this paper. However, Rojek (2005a) offers a leisure-related discussion.

4 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, USA), that is, it had not been endorsed by their legislative assemblies. For ratification status of treaties/ states see: https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ParticipationStatus.aspx?clang=_en

5 Country reports are available online at: www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CESCR/Pages/CESCRIndex.aspx.

6 The International Labour Organisation became part of the UN in 1946 but had been established as the International Labour Office in 1929, under the terms of the World War I settlement, the Treaty of Versailles.

7 Early examples of further research are: the current paper and Veal (2021, 2022). A suggested agenda for research was included in Veal (2015).

8 Aitchison (2013, 533) mistakenly attributes a statement about ‘recreational activities, sports and all aspects of cultural life’ to the UDHR. In fact, the UDHR does not mention ‘recreational activities’ and ‘sports’ – the quoted statement is from the CEDW (Article 13).

9 Rojek (2005b, 222) indicated in a footnote that he was presenting a summary of the perspective on human rights drawn from Turner and Rojek (2001).

10 It should be noted that the Action Approach has not been subsequently adopted within leisure studies generally.