The social work profession in the United States has been reluctant to integrate human rights principles into academic curricula. The teaching of human rights remains in an infant stage, even though the Council of Social Work Education now mandates integration of human rights into social work education. A major difficulty in integrating human rights into the profession concerns a lack of understanding as to what human rights actually mean. This article defines human rights and discusses their meaning for social workers. The discussion includes an overview of the universalism versus cultural relativism challenge that occurs when discussing human rights, as well as the promises of human rights.

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The strongest and most urgent international statement about women's rights emerged from the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in September 1995 in Beijing. This statement, referred to as the Platform for Action, represents an agenda to empower women in economic, social and political areas (United Nations, 1996a). Prompted by women from all over the world, UN delegates unanimously agreed that the rights of women and the girl child are an indivisible part of universal human rights.A fundamental prerequisite for women and men to share power is that of recognizing women's rights as human rights (United Nations, 1996a). Often without recourse against violations of their rights, women find it difficult to overcome barriers to their advancement in society. Women may encounter obstacles to enjoyment of human rights because many people do not recognize those rights. Failure to identify human rights of women begins at an early age, with the girl child.This paper discusses violence against women as a violation of their human rights and the philosophy behind this concept. The paper also covers the 1995 Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Forum held parallel to the UN women's conference. At the NGO forum, social workers held a symposium on human rights and violence against women, the first organized gathering of social workers held in conjunction with a UN conference. Finally, the paper explains the Platform for Action and what it means to international social work. Downloaded from 372 Violence against women as violation of human rights The concept of human rights is one of the few moral visions ascribed to internationally. Although its scope is not universally agreed upon, it strikes deep chords of response among many. Promotion of human rights is a widely accepted goal and provides a useful framework for seeking redress of gender abuse. (Bunch, 1990: 486-7) Yet, while the refrain of human rights extends to all parts of the world, it generally has overlooked improper acts against women (Bunch, 1995). For instance, men frequently subject women to physical and mental violence with only sparse reference to that violence being an offense against human rights. This maltreatment of women acts as a cultural and social mechanism by which the male dominates his victims (United Nations, 1996a). By dominating women through acts of violence, men belittle the inherent right of women to be treated with respect.While nobody should tolerate physical and mental violence against women, many people fail to see the connection between this violence and human rights (Sullivan, 1995;Bunch, 1995). Violence against women transcends class and culture, occurs in private and public spheres and ultimately depreciates the health and status of women (United Nations, 1996a;Cook, 1994a). Clearly, to advance the cause of reducing violence against women, a connection to human rights plays a crucial role. Even among women's groups inclusion of women's rights into the umbrella of human rights has been a relatively new concept. With its Pla...

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