Challenges in Human Rights

A Social Work Perspective

Elisabeth Reichert

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9780231510349
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

By using human rights as a guidepost, social workers can help create social welfare policies that better serve societal needs. However, in applying human rights to contemporary situations, social workers often encounter challenges that require thinking outside the box. Bringing together provocative essays from a diverse range of authors, Elisabeth Reichert demonstrates how approaching social work from a human rights perspective can profoundly affect legislation, resource management, and enforcement of policies. Topics include the reconciliation of cultural relativism with universal human rights; the debate over whether human rights truly promote economic and social development or simply allow economically developed societies to exploit underdeveloped countries; the role of gender in the practice of human rights; the tendency to promote political and civil rights over economic and social rights; and the surprising connection between the social work and legal professions.

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Human Rights in the Twenty-first Century

Creating a New Paradigm for Social Work

ELISABETH REICHERT

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.

—Eleanor Roosevelt, National Coordinating Committee,
Universal Declaration of Human Rights 50th Anniversary, 1998

Introduction

Basic concepts underlying human rights offer little that is new to the social work profession, which, historically, advocates for education, equality, health care, housing, and fairness, all of which fit neatly under the umbrella of human rights (National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 2003; van Wormer, 2004; Wronka, 1998; Staub Bernasconi, 1998; Ife, 2001). The social work profession, by any standard, has a commonality with human rights that should guide the profession in both policy and practice.

In the United States, however, the social work profession has yet to establish a clear connection to human rights both in curricula and policy statements (Reichert, 2003). The social work literature includes only a few serious efforts to analyze and link human rights to social work, and when it does address the topic of human rights, which is rare, it is usually treated cursorily (Reichert, 2003). Thus a detailed analysis of human rights documents and principles remains in an infant stage. For social workers to truly understand the significance of human rights to the profession, a far greater emphasis on human rights education is needed. Now that the Council of Social Work Education mandates the teaching of human rights as part of the social work curricula, the option of neglecting human rights issues no longer exists (Council on Social Work Education, [CSWE] 2003).

The link between the social work profession and human rights appears more developed internationally than in the United States. The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) policy paper states that “social workers respect the basic human rights of individuals and groups as expressed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international conventions derived from that Declaration” (International Federation of Social Workers [IFSW], 2005). With an international policy statement in place promoting the importance of human rights to social work, the social work profession within the United States needs to view the study of human rights more seriously.

This chapter addresses the paucity of social work literature on human rights and the critical importance of correcting this lack. The social work profession can only truly fulfill its mission by adopting a more focused and analytical approach to human rights.

Why Human Rights as Part of Social Work?

A primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human wellbeing and help people to meet all their basic human needs, attending particularly to the needs and empowerment of those who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty (National Association of Social Work [NASW], 1999). A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession’s focus on the individual well-being of society (Reichert, 2006a).

The roles of social workers are numerous: they protect children and other vulnerable populations; they perform various counseling roles; they carry out international relief work and occupy the front lines of disaster assistance; they assist in delivering social services to all populations—in other words, without social workers, the world would enjoy a less hopeful and welcoming environment.

Yet, while the social work profession can draw upon its history and accomplishments, it must also prepare for future challenges and needs. The profession must adapt to changing social movements and respond effectively. What does this require? The short answer is a much closer alignment with human rights rather than an uncritical following of practices and policies that effectively counter the social work mission.

Social work principles are intended to ensure that a person in need never goes without shelter, food, or medical care. Labeling a person as undeserving because he or she is unemployed or lacks sufficient income to cover basic needs contradicts the very core of social work. Yet welfare laws in the United States provide minimal leeway in dealing with the economic circumstances of lower-income individuals (Reichert & McCormick, 1997, 1998; Blau & Abramovitz, 2004). Social workers often have little choice but to obey the legal guidelines that essentially determine who receives a social benefit and who does not. An important question to consider is how social workers might tailor their profession to better fit their mission when social welfare laws continually challenge that goal. One option is for the profession to embrace human rights principles and lobby politicians to include those principles in legislation. The obvious starting point in this endeavor is for the profession itself to understand the meaning of human rights. Only then can social workers move forward into the legislative sphere of assisting lawmakers to incorporate human rights principles into social welfare legislation.

Overview of Human Rights

The social work profession in the United States, as noted above, has yet to infuse specific references to human rights documents and principles into practices and policies. In its latest policy statements covering numerous social work issues, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) refers to human rights only twice—under the international section and briefly under women’s issues (NASW, 2003). The Association emphasizes the strong historical bond between human rights and social work but acknowledges that the “profession does not fully use human rights as a criterion with which to evaluate social work policies, practice, research, and program priorities” (p. 211).

The NASW Code of Ethics does not even mention human rights, and only recently has the CSWE referred to human rights within its educational standards for accreditation of schools of social work (NASW, 1999; CSWE, 2003). Although this standard only refers to human rights in passing, it does appear to require integration of human rights into social work education. A logical consequence of omitting clear and mandatory references to human rights within ethical statements or educational curricula has been the lack of impetus within the profession to incorporate human rights into policies and practices. Unless the profession advocates for human rights, it is no surprise that lawmakers may overlook human rights principles in drafting legislation.

Social Justice and Human Rights

Social work literature continually prefers the term “social justice” in analyzing core issues relevant to the profession (Swenson, 1998; Reichert, 2001, 2003). Although human rights clearly do not supersede concepts of social justice, a primary advantage of referring to human rights principles involves a clearer and more encompassing set of guidelines than those associated with social justice. NASW recognizes the limitations of social justice compared to human rights principles in the field of social work:

Social work can be proud of its heritage. It is the only profession imbued with social justice as its fundamental value and concern. But social justice is a fairness doctrine that provides civil and political leeway in deciding what is just and unjust. Human rights, on the other hand, encompass social justice, but transcend civil and political customs, in consideration of the basic life-sustaining needs of all human beings, without distinction. (NASW, 2003, p. 211)

Human rights provide the social work profession with a global and contemporary set of guidelines, whereas social justice tends to be defined in vague terminology such as fairness versus unfairness or equality versus inequality (Reichert, 2003). This distinction gives human rights an authority that social justice lacks. Human rights can elicit discussion of common issues by people from all walks of life and every corner of the world. One example where worldwide attention to a common human rights issue has led to effective action involves violence against women (United Nations, 1981; The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, 1995). For example, grass-roots movements and pressure on governments have increased awareness of the harm done by violence against women and have led to subsequent legislation to help prevent this type of violence. Here, by asserting that violence against women is a violation of human rights, a common link was established among social workers, and others, worldwide. A campaign organized around the words “social justice” may not have had the same effectiveness, as charging a country or a group with a human rights violation certainly sounds more forceful than a charge of violating social justice. Social justice, of course, is an important part of the social work mission, but clearly it does not have the same import as human rights in addressing issues common to social work.

What Are Human Rights?

A basic problem in teaching human rights is establishing a clear definition of what these rights are. Because social workers mostly encounter references to human rights only within the confines of politics or law, human rights may appear to have only slight relevance to social work. In restricting the term to political situations, especially in other countries, the importance of human rights to social work has been depreciated (Reichert, 2003). When U.S. politicians speak of human rights, for example, they typically do so in the context of a distant nation, one less economically developed than the United States. In stating, for instance, that a particular African country must respect human rights before the U.S. will provide aid, exactly what is meant by the term “human rights”? Clearly it is assumed that everyone understands the meaning and would readily agree that countries must respect human rights before our government will assist them.

Not only are politicians muddying the waters regarding human rights, but lawyers, too, speak of human rights in legalese that is more applicable to the courtroom or an academic treatise than to everyday life. No wonder social workers may find the topic of human rights unclear and better suited to politicians and lawyers whose explanations appear divorced from social work. But a careful study of human rights will expose this parochial view and show that social workers have at least as much claim to the exercise of human rights principles as do politicians and lawyers.

Definition of Human Rights

Human rights encompass an array of political, economic, and social arenas and, while defining needs, also present a set of individual rights that apply worldwide. The following is a general definition offered by the United Nations (1987):

Human rights are those rights, which are inherent in our nature and without which we cannot live as human beings. Human rights and fundamental freedoms allow us to fully develop and use our human qualities, our intelligence, our talents and our conscience and to satisfy our spiritual and other needs.

One might question, however, whose nature prevails in this definition. Americans may view access to electricity and running water as an inherent right, whereas, among people in Third World nations, simply having enough to eat may be deemed sufficient to retain their dignity. Are people who have the means to obtain valuable resources more entitled to their human rights than other, lesser advantaged people? The answer is a resounding no. However, a fundamental difficulty arises in allocating resources and constructing policies by which human rights apply to all people equally and not simply to select individuals and groups (Reichert, 2003). By classifying certain rights and freedoms as human rights, all governments recognize the common goal of creating conditions to guarantee those rights and freedoms, despite the intricacies involved in actually ensuring that they are granted.

Another complicated issue related to the definition of human rights is its emphasis on an individual’s “rights.” Does a person, in order to be granted a human right, have an obligation to behave in a certain way? For example, if one refuses an opportunity to work and earn a living, should that person have a right to public assistance? Few U.S. citizens would argue that prisoners are not entitled to adequate food and medical care when in prison. Yet ordinary citizens have no guarantee that they, too, will receive adequate medical care and food. To overcome what appears to be a contradiction of human rights principles, the logical, and charitable, solution is to accept that everyone shares a common humanity and that, regardless of circumstances, every individual is entitled to live according to basic human rights principles.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

A key starting point in understanding human rights is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations [UN], 1948), which has been approved by every member nation of the UN (Reichert, 2001). The declaration, which provides a list of specific human rights, is not legally binding on any nation, but, at the very least, a nation’s approval of the declaration indicates its commitment to satisfying the rights specified in the document.

The Universal Declaration contains three distinct sets or generations of human rights. The first, known as “negative rights,” lists political and individual freedoms that most people in the United States would recognize as human rights. These include due process, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom of movement and assembly, as well as guarantees against discrimination, slavery, and torture (UN, 1948, Articles 2–15). Another set of rights, referred to as “positive rights,” attempts to ensure each individual an adequate standard of living. Under this second set of human rights, everyone “has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.” In addition, “motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance,” and everyone has the right to a free education at the elementary level (UN, 1948, Articles 16–27).

The third generation of human rights involves collective rights a...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: Social Work Perspectives on Human Rights
• 1. Human Rights in the Twenty-first Century: Creating a New Paradigm for Social Work
• 2. Human Rights in Social Work Practice: An Invisible Part of the Social Work Curriculum?
• 3. Global Distributive Justice as a Human Right: Implications for the Creation of a Human Rights Culture
• 4. Cultural Relativism and Community Activism
• 5. Development, Social Development, and Human Rights
• 6. Using Economic Human Rights in the Movement to End Poverty: The Kensington Welfare Rights Union and the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign
• 7. Economic and Social Rights: The Neglected Human Rights
• 8. Human Rights and Women: A Work in Progress
• 9. Human Rights Violations Against Female Offenders and Inmates
• 10. Children’s Rights as a Template for Social Work Practice
• 11. Globalization, Democratization, and Human Rights: Human-Made Disasters and a Call for Universal Social Justice
• 12. Law and Social Work: Not-So-Odd Bedfellows in Promoting Human Rights
• List of Contributors
• Index