About
The Right to Daylight Project
The Right to Daylight Project–Youth and children’s right to preventative health measures through outdoor recreation and play in daylight
Our project is focused on building a transdisciplinary network of young people, researchers and health practitioners to explore and promote the ´right to daylight´, as part of the right to outdoor recreation and play and fundamental to their right to health.
Research indicates adequate exposure to daylight, especially during the child and youth stages of human mental and physical development, is vital to better life long preventative holistic health outcomes.
The project is an initiative of the University of South Eastern Norway Faculty of Health and Social Sciences in collaboration with The Faculty of Humanities, Sport and Education Sciences alongside external organisations, including schools, community groups, urban planners, outdoor play designers and innovators.
Our mission is to connect our common sense understanding of the health benefits of outdoor play and recreation with the scientific evidence of daylight exposure.
Access to daylight is a fundamental part of young people's "right to play" and "right to health, as formulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (0–18 years) (UNCRC) Articles 31 and 24 (United Nations, 1989).
The project brings youth and children together with artists, outdoor play designers, urban planners, educators, scientists, health practitioners, and decision makers.
The project explores play, daylight and health through different research approaches. We use ideas from the arts, medical science, new technologies (AI and wearables) and urban design.
The research project participants are gathered from the disciplines of vision & light, brain & sleep, arts & play, culture & society, education, public health, urban design and technology & innovation.
Photos: (from top) Ifrah Akhter, Gene Dizon, Jacky Watt, Les Taylor from Unsplash