2023-11-15 13:43:57
In her annual report on the rights of the child made public this Wednesday, November 15, the Defender of Rights emphasizes the importance of rest and sporting and cultural activities for the development of the child, although they are often considered secondary.
Leisure, rest, as well as sporting and cultural activities, are an “essential” right for children: this is what the Defender of Rights defends in a report published this Wednesday, November 15, which regrets that it is sometimes neglected and unequally respected.
“There is a gap between the right to leisure, culture and sport, which exists in our texts, and the reality experienced by children,” explained Claire Hédon to AFP, presenting the annual report on rights of the child, devoted this year to leisure.
“Rest and sleep, play and movement, discovery of the outside world and oneself, are inherent to the child’s development, both from a physical and educational point of view as well as from a social and cultural point of view,” underlines the independent administrative authority which consulted 3,600 children. “It’s not a small right, a secondary right. […] These activities enable the child’s development, social integration, education and personal development,” she notes.
The Defender of Rights demands that the compulsory teaching of sports practice at school and college (three hours per week), not always respected, be “effective”. For many children, school is the “only access” to “art, culture and sport”.
Geographic, social and gender inequalities
“Children in France have half as many sporting activities as the average of European countries, and girls in France half as many as boys,” says Claire Hédon, who highlights the existing gender inequalities in access to sport. : in the playgrounds, the boys occupy the center by playing football and the girls are relegated “to the periphery”. Municipalities build more sports facilities for activities practiced by boys (soccer fields, skate parks, etc.) than by girls, she says.
Among the obstacles to access to sporting and artistic activities, geographical and social inequalities: rural or poorer territories have a less developed offer and limited transport. “71% of children whose parents have low incomes are not registered in a club or sports and cultural association, compared to 38% of children whose parents have high incomes,” according to the report.
If children from working-class backgrounds are “under-occupied”, others, in advantaged backgrounds, are on the contrary “over-occupied”, notes the report. He emphasizes the importance of giving the child respite and rest and letting him choose his activities. The “search for performance” can be a source of “stress” and contrary to the “essential” idea of “pleasure”.
“Adapted and inclusive access”
The report welcomes the policies implemented by public authorities in the field of sport to combat sexual and gender-based violence and invites the Ministry of Culture to draw inspiration from them.
The report recommends “appropriate and inclusive access for all children to sport, art and culture, regardless of their age, gender, state of health or disability, origin and nationality”. He thus notes the difficulties of children who are poorly housed, placed or incarcerated, disabled or sick in benefiting from regular sporting activities. “In a home, we are forced to follow the group without being able to choose our activities. But we don’t all like the same thing!” testifies a child cited in the report.
Unaccompanied foreign minors, 30% of whom were housed in hotels in 2020, should have “access to extracurricular or sporting activities whenever they express the desire”. The Place de Fontenoy institution also proposes to “make systematic the translation into several languages” of registration files in sports and cultural clubs and associations, for parents who do not speak French.
By hosting the 2024 Olympic Games, “France has made the promotion of physical and sporting activity a great national cause”, an ambition which questions the “place given to these activities in the daily lives of children”, underlines the institution .
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