Human rights in social work: an essential basis

Abstract

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.

Advancing Human Rights and Social and Economic Justice: Developing Competence in Field Education

“…Those skills may reflect familiar approaches to practice; the explicit connection to human rights and social justice, however, may be a new way of conceptualizing practice. Many workers are not accustomed to analyzing human rights principles related to a social issue (Reichert 2011). If workers hold a narrow definition of justice-based or rights-based practice, they may overlook new opportunities or their current actions that do in fact advance human rights and social and economic justice.…”

“…In this way, social workers may be steeped in social justice on an Bindividualized and personalized^basis (p. 182), rather than broader systemic change. A human rights framework can help workers remember the structural forces and inequities, while planning interventions or providing resources (Lundy and van Wormer 2007;Reichert 2011;Rozas and Garran 2015). In preparing new workers, instructors can model ways to enter this work as advocates for clients and for systemic change.…”

“…Social workers carry out this focus in professional activities that advance human rights and social and economic justice in myriad practice settings. The code identifies social justice as a core value of the profession and conveys the ethical imperative of addressing social problems involving human rights issues (Reichert 2011).…”

“…Despite the emphasis on human rights and social and economic justice, there is no consensus on the definition of these terms (Reichert 2011;Reisch 2002). In its Code of Ethics, NASW (2008) describes the core value of social justice as the impetus for effecting change and promoting equity and implies that the profession has a commitment to human rights (Ife 2012).…”

“…Which practices will advance human rights and social and economic justice? The answers vary with each worker, practice context, and population; as with all generalist practice skills, there are countless ways to engage in this work (Ife 2012;Reichert 2011). Nevertheless, students need to know how to translate theoretical concepts into their fieldwork and to identify the basis for assessment of their competence.…”