Yongsan-gu Announces Ordinance Guaranteeing Children's Right to Play

As Part of the Child-Friendly City Project... Yongsan Dodam Dodam Indoor Playground Reflecting Children's Needs to Open in October, First Child Participation Ordinance Enacted by a Seoul Autonomous District

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Yongsan-gu (Mayor Seongjanghyun) enacted and promulgated the "Ordinance on Guaranteeing Children's Right to Play in Yongsan-gu, Seoul" on the 24th as part of the child-friendly city creation project.

This is to guarantee children's right to play and establish an institutional foundation for the creation and operation of a public indoor playground scheduled to open in October this year, in order to realize one of the core tasks of inclusive national child policy, "creating a community where children can play freely."

In particular, this ordinance is significant as it was enacted as the first child-participatory ordinance among Seoul's autonomous districts.

During the ordinance enactment process, the district prioritized collecting opinions from the Green Umbrella Children's Foundation (Seoul Child Advocacy Center), an NGO promoting children's rights, conducted a survey on each article of the ordinance targeting children and adolescents, and finalized the wording.

The ordinance consists of 24 articles, and especially through Article 3 (Mayor's Responsibilities), it stipulates that the mayor must guarantee children's right to play and establish and implement policies necessary for creating a safe and sound play culture.

A district official said, "With the enactment of this ordinance, a foundation has been laid to promote projects that practically guarantee children's right to play, such as creating play infrastructure, developing and distributing play programs, and guaranteeing the right to play for children from vulnerable groups."

The ordinance also specifies matters related to the creation and operation of the indoor playground (Article 9). The playground will be created on a 280㎡ donated space in Zone 4 around the International Building (Hangangno 3-ga 63-70 area). Interior construction is currently underway.

The district recently finalized the facility name as "Yongsan Dodam Dodam Indoor Playground" through a resident contest. Dodam Dodam is characterized as Seoul's first child-participatory indoor playground, where children's participation was encouraged from the early design stage through a design camp.

Last year, the district enacted and promulgated the "Ordinance on Creating a Child-Friendly City in Yongsan-gu, Seoul." Through this, the district plans to accelerate the creation of a child-friendly city by removing discriminatory elements against children in establishing and implementing various policies and actively reflecting children's opinions.

Seongjanghyun, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, said, "The district is making great efforts to ensure that our children can fully enjoy the right to play that they deserve during childhood," and added, "We hope many residents will show interest in and use the Dodam Dodam Indoor Playground opening in October."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.