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

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.