'Guaranteeing Children's Right to Play' Gwanghwamun 1st Street Open Communication Forum Held

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 26th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 25th that it will hold the 3rd Gwanghwamun 1st Street Open Communication Forum of 2021 under the theme "How can we guarantee children's right to play?".

The upcoming '3rd Open Communication Forum' is designed to diagnose government policies for children's right to play and to discover public ideas for guaranteeing the right to play by sharing vivid cases of private sector activities, with the aim of reflecting these in policy.

Considering the COVID-19 situation, the open communication forum will be held online, consisting of Part 1, a public forum for the general public via YouTube, and Part 2, small group discussions using Zoom, open to participation by anyone.

In Part 1, broadcast live on YouTube, Han Chang-seop, Director of the Government Innovation Organization Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, will introduce the forum topic and discuss why public participation is important in government policy-making. Following this, Lee Soo-jung, CEO of Nori Haneun Saramdeul, will present on the theme "A Happy Daily Life with Play: Social Responsibility for Guaranteeing the Right to Play for Children and Adolescents," and Kim Kyung-wook, a child rights activist, will present on "Right to Play 2021: A Reflection on Children's Right to Play." After the presentations, the presenters along with Noh Hana, Head of Child Rights Planning at the Child Rights Guarantee Institute, and Lee Min-jung, Head of Activity Planning at the Korea Youth Activity Promotion Agency, will share thoughts on policies needed for children's right to play with the public through the YouTube live chat.

Part 2 will involve small group discussions for policy proposal discovery through video conferencing using Zoom. Fifty pre-registered participants will engage in more in-depth discussions with professional facilitators to develop policy proposals for guaranteeing children's "right to play."

The various public opinions proposed at this forum will be finalized as policy proposals through a maturation forum next month, reviewed by the relevant ministries, and reflected in policy. The policy proposals discovered through the forum and the results of their policy reflection can be checked on the Gwanghwamun 1st Street website.

Han Chang-seop, Director of the Government Innovation Organization Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "We hope that the public will share their vivid experiences and wisdom from the perspective of parents raising children or teachers educating them," and added, "We will actively cooperate with related ministries to ensure that the diverse public opinions from the forum are well reflected in policy."