Children have rights. Of course, we know that, but we are still often reminded of that. Women also have rights, which again has to be reinforced, as all too often people may try to ignore, diminish or simply undermine that right. Then too there are many who are hot on the campaign to ensure that we understand that animals have rights. So, have we forgotten any group or category that needs to have their rights upheld, decreed or promoted?
While we reflect on that a moment, we may do well to remind ourselves of some of the many rights that are enshrined in our national Constitution. There are civil and political rights. We all have a right to freedom of movement, expression, choice and association. We all have the right to health and to education, to religion and conscience, to work and to safety. President Franklin Roosevelt spoke of the ‘Four Freedoms’ of which we all have the right, those being the freedom of speech and of worship as well as the freedom from want and from fear. We shall leave for another time consideration as to whether we do indeed all benefit from all such rights, but we do have those rights and more.
Interestingly, even those who do not have freedom do also have rights; yes, prisoners have rights. Even those political prisoners hidden away on Robben Island in South Africa during the apartheid era knew they had rights, though at times they were denied or minimized. Often, they had to fight for them but they were entitled to them, rightly so, even if we think that such humans have forsaken their right to rights by the behaviour that led them to be there. They may not have had freedom of movement but they still had rights.
In a remarkable book about how soccer played a crucial part in the lives of the prisoners on Robben Island, we read that prisoner 898/63, Isaac Mthimunye, stated that “Sport was a human right”, justifying his statement by adding that “We prisoners had the right to spiritual and physical development”. Sport was a human right; it was a right that all humans should have, along with spiritual development (which, for the record and as an aside, could be helped by playing sport). Not even prisoners should be denied such a right, which ultimately the authorities recognized and granted (though it should be added it was not initially done freely, consistently, joyfully but reluctantly and perfidiously).
So, incredibly, the story is told of how the prisoners formed different teams, developed a formal association complete with a constitution that oversaw all matters to playing appropriately, and even introduced a league and cup system. It was taken extremely seriously and was the bright hope to which they could look forward after long, painful hours breaking rocks in the quarry and building further prison blocks.
If prisoners understood and convinced others to realise that sport was a right for them, so we should never deny the right for all children to play sport. Schools that do not provide sport (and, let us be clear, that does not mean or include PE lessons) are, in reality, making prisoners of the children by denying them freedom of movement, expression and health (to name only a few freedoms). Sporting participation and competition is an essential part of human, physical development. Indeed, it is not simply a right; it must also be a requirement.
There was a compelling advertisement a number of years ago promoting specific sportswear which had the slogan “You can’t stop sport”. In one sense, it was pointing out how people of all abilities, backgrounds, creeds, whatever, could all play sport and sport would keep on rolling forward. Sport will never die, not even in prison. In another sense though, it could be taken to be saying you have no right to stop sport – you cannot and must not stop people playing sport, e4specially children.
We might add that, just as we saw in a previous article how we would be crazy not to claim our lottery winnings, likening it to not claiming the rewards of using the talents we have been given, so we will also be crazy if we do not ensure that the right for sport is enshrined not simply in the Constitution but also in all our schools. We have the responsibility to protect that right. Right?