Children’s Rights to and in Sport: A Comparative Analysis of Organizational Policies in the Scandinavian Countries

Sine Agergaard (), Karin Redelius and Åse Strandbu
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Sine Agergaard: Sports and Social Issues, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, 9260 Gistrup, Denmark
Karin Redelius: Department of Movement, Culture and Society, The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH), Box 5626, 114 86 Stockholm, Sweden
Åse Strandbu: Department of Movement, Culture and Society, The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH), Box 5626, 114 86 Stockholm, Sweden

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: It has long been stated that children have the rights to protection from, e.g., abuse and to the provision of age-appropriate leisure, play, and recreational activities along with participation in all matters that concerns them. Yet, the full range of children’s rights to and in sport has not yet been explored in detail. To do so, it is relevant to turn to the Scandinavian countries, which are praised for promoting children’s rights and well-being, with organized sport forming part of the daily lives of many children and youths. In this paper, we examine the organizational policies in Scandinavian sport in order to develop foundational knowledge about how the range of children’s rights to and in sport may be supported. Comparing key policy documents of the major sports confederations in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, these analyses identify great variety in the following: 1. when and how children’s rights to and in sport have been made explicit in the three countries; 2. whether the emphasis is on protection and/or provision of sport to children and youths or their participation in shaping sporting activities; 3. the degree to and ways in which such rights are regulated. In sum, our findings reflect a disparity between organizational policies in the three countries, with a more liberal and individualistic approach to public policy in the Danish context, providing some explanation of the only recent development in and scattered enaction of regulations to support children’s rights to and in sports. Furthermore, we identify that political attention has mainly been drawn to the protection and provision of sports to children and youths, while their participation in shaping sport is a shared challenge for sport confederations in the Scandinavian countries and beyond.

Keywords: youth sport; physical activity; civil society; protection; provision; participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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