Promoting children's right to play

The resolution, proposed by 13 countries including Vietnam and co-sponsored by 138 countries, recognises the role of play in developing cognitive, physical, creative, social, and emotional skills across all ages.

It also stressed the importance of ensuring access to play and recreational activities, for the physical and psychological health and development of children and adolescents.

Facts have shown that play is not only fun and a legitimate aspiration of children, but also a useful activity for children's intellectual and emotional development. Play helps children improve physical health and motor skills, thus staying active.

Play activities also help stimulate intellectual development, arouse curiosity and train children's problem-solving skills. Through play, children can also control their emotions and discover their strengths, while learning effective teamwork and coordinating with others.

UNICEF Acting Chief Representative in Vietnam Leslie Miller, affirmed that play is essential for quality education and is one of the most powerful tools for children's development.

Children's right to play is also one of the basic rights recognised in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Vietnamese Children's Law.

Unfortunately, not all children have the opportunity to play freely.

According to UNICEF, as many as 160 million children worldwide are forced to work instead of playing and learning.

According to the Survey measuring Sustainable Development Goal indicators on Children and Women in Vietnam during 2020-2021, jointly conducted by the General Statistics Office and UNICEF, 6.6% of children aged 5-17 participated in production-business-service activities, considered child labour.

The share of children in child labour, and of children in hazardous work, who worked over 40 hours per week was 34.2% and 40.6%, respectively.

On the other hand, the authorities and many parents are not yet fully aware of the importance of play activities, so they do not spend enough time in an appropriate, safe space for this activity.

Therefore, promoting children’s right to play should be identified as one of the important issues.

Since then, further efforts should be made to ensure that all children from cities to rural and remote areas have access to playgrounds, toys, music, and sports facilities.

It is also necessary to build play areas for children, ensuring safe and healthy play spaces.

In addition, parents can participate in playing with their children, which can help to increase time with their children and limit the time they are exposed to harmful and inappropriate content on social platforms.