Keynote Speakers

Professor Jakob Egbert Doek
Chairperson (2001- 2007),
United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by States parties. All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the committee on how these rights are being implemented.

Following a distinguished academic career in The Netherlands centred on juvenile law and justice, Prof Doek is a much sought after speaker at international conferences. He retains wide contacts with law schools in South Africa, Canada, the United States and Europe. 

Professor Doek has been invited to draw on his continuing active involvement in children’s rights issues in order to share with us the conditions in which children worldwide find themselves, and to provide a global perspective on the latest trends in protection of the rights of the child. He has also been asked to discuss how delegates and their organizations might collaborate in future to advocate children’s right to play.  

Dr Isami Kinoshita
Professor
Department of Environmental Science and Landscape Architecture
Chiba University, Japan

Professor Kinoshita teaches city planning and environmental management. His interest in the engagement of children in decision making, coupled with his further studies at the Eidgenössiches Technische Hochschule in Zurich and his visits to adventure playgrounds in Europe, led him to carry out novel action research in Tokyo’s Taishido district involving maps and childhood memories across three generations. He is currently working on neighbourhood improvement in Matsudo’s Kogane district. He is noted for workshop programmes in which children create pocket parks, green ways, and apple promenades, among many other creative projects.

Professor Kinoshita will suggest how in a semiotically ruled society delegates can best ensure that children are fully involved in the planning and design of play environments.

Sue Palmer
Writer, broadcaster, and consultant on the education of young children

Ms Palmer is a regular contributor to The Times Educational Supplement and other journals, and the author of more than 200 books, TV programmes and software for 3 to 12 year olds. She is also a popular speaker, addressing thousands of teachers each year across the United Kingdom and around the world, and acts as an independent adviser to many organizations, including the Department for Education and Skills and the BBC. Her most recent book, which has been widely discussed, is called Toxic Childhood: how the modern world is damaging our children and what we can do about it. 

We are inviting Ms Palmer to draw on her extensive interviews and researches into the changing lifestyles of children in order to discuss the varying unwelcome pressures on them and to suggest how action worldwide might possibly redeem this situation.

Professor Low Guat-tin
Associate Professor, Department of Policy & Leadership Studies, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Professor Low Guat Tin is an associate professor of policy and leadership studies at the National Institute of Education in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She is also the vice president of The Girls’ Brigade Singapore and a founding member of the Greenleaf Centre (Asia) for Servant Leadership. Low received her basic training in school psychology and studied educational management at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in the United States. She has conducted extensive research on women in leadership, learning styles, mentoring and motivation.

Low is a member of the Nanyang faculty responsible for operating leadership and management programmes for school leaders, such as the Leadership in Education Programme, which prepares school leaders to become principals of schools in Singapore.

Modern societies continuously change the way people live. This phenomenon also affects how children play. Because of her knowledge and scholarly dedication to understand the development of the next generation, Low is most qualified to discuss how progress will continue to affect children’s development. We also hope to hear what she proposes as a solution to one of today’s most intractable problems: The loss of a happy childhood.

Plenary Speakers as at 7 August 2007

8 January 2008 – Children’s Right to Play

Dr Chok-wan Chan
President-elect of International Pediatric Association
President of The Hong Kong Society of Child Neurology & Developmental Paediatrics, Hong Kong

Professor Liu Yan
Early Childhood Education Department
School of Education
Beijing Normal University, People¡¦s Republic of China

9 January 2008 – Play and Changing Lifestyles

Mr Peter Dean
Assistant Professor of School of Design
Leader of Toy Design Lab
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Professor Shih-tsung Chang (EdD)
School of Toy and Game Design
National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan

Mr. Ouro Tchatchedre
Africa Play
Togo

10 January 2008 – Play and Changing Environments

Mr Ric McConaghy
Australian play environments expert

Mr KS Wong
Council Member and the Chairman of Board of Local Affairs
The Hong Kong Institute of Architects Secretariat

11 January 2008 – Play and Modernization

Dr Chun-bong Chow
Chairperson of Playright Children¡¦s Play Association, Hong Kong
Consultant Paediatrician, Princess Margaret Hospital