The linkage between social work and human rights.

Q.2. Explain the linkage between social work and human rights.

Human rights per se refer to rights of individuals which are deemed necessary by virtue of their being the members of human community. It is in bracketing these rights for effective practice that human rights took the form of a bunch of rights that spread to allpolitical, economic and social areas. In 1987 United Nations defined human rights as 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.

Human rights have priority over other claims of rights and need to be differentiated from other rights. For example the right to food needs to be differentiated from the right to bear arms. Questions can be raised as to which and what kinds of rights are or claimed to be human rights. Recently, Jim Ife (2001) has proposed five-fold criteria to define what constitute a human right or to make a claim on the basis of human rights:  Realisation of the claimed right is necessary for al person or group to be able to achieve their full humanity, in common with others.  The claimed right is seen either as applying to alll of humanity, and is something that the person or group claiming the right wishes to apply to all people anywhere, or as applying to people from specific disadvantaged or marginalised groups for whom realisation of that right is essential to their achieving their full human potential.

It is possible for the claimed right to be effectively realised for all legitimate claimants. This excludes rights to things that are in limited supply, for example the right to housing with a panoramic view, the right to own a TV channel, or the right to ‘own’ large tracts of land.  The claimed right does not contradict other humanl rights. This would disallow as human rights the ‘right’ to bear arms, the ‘right’ to hold other people in slavery, a man ‘right’ to beat his wife and children, the ‘right’ to excessive profits resulting in poverty for other, and so on. Thus the class of human rights does not include all the rights that people might claim, and that a claim to human rights has to pass certain stringent tests as narrated above. When beginning to study human rights, a social worker needs to understand the basic concepts relating to those rights. Human rights are commonly referred as: universal, indivisible, inalienable, inabrogable and intergenerational. The concept of universality underpins human rights and implies that human rights apply to all human beings and every individual has a claim to enjoyment of human rights, irrespective of his other attributes. The concept of indivisibility means that human rights come as a package. It refers to necessity that governments and individuals recognize each human right and not to selectively promote some rights over others. One can not pick and choose, accepting some and rejecting others as the denial of one human right can easily impact the enjoyment of other rights and directly or indirectly deny other human rights.

Social Work and Human Rights:

Basic linkages Social workers have focussed on valuing social justice and social change in micro-level relationships and attempted to work with clients in ways that are ameliorative and respectful of their diversity and differences. These concerns have provided the backdrop for the development of a human rights-based social work. National Association of Social Workers (2000) in its policy statement International Policy on Human Rights endorses the Universal Declaration, conventions and treatises that according to National Association of Social Workers, provide a human rights template for social work. Human rights framework provides a prism through which to view social work profession’s values, ethics and principles which are necessarily expected from social workers in their practical settings. As is said when social workers fail to operationalize these principles, they victimize clients and disempower them. Conversely, upholding these practice principles facilitates empowerment. The section 4 of International Federation of Social Workers and International Association of Schools of Social Work document provides two principles fundamental to social work viz., Human Rights and Dignity (section 4.1), and Social Justice (section 4.2). Both the principles are reproduced below. These illustrate how social work professionals are mandated to uphold and promote human rights perspective:

Human Rights and Human Dignity

Social work is based on respect for the inherent worth and dignity of all people, and the rights that follow from this. Social workers should uphold and defend each person’s physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual integrity and well-being. This means:

1) Respecting the rights to self determination : Social workers should respect and promote people’s right to make their own choices and decisions, irrespective of their values and life choices, provided this does not threaten the rights and legitimate interests of others.

2) Promoting the right to participation : Social worker should promote the full involvement and participation of people using their services in ways that enable them to be empowered in all aspects of decisions and actions affecting their lives.

3) Treating each person as a whole : Social workers should be concerned with the whole person, within the family, community and societal and natural environments, and should seek to recognise all aspects of a person’s life.

4) Identifying and developing strengths : Social workers should focus on the strengths of all individuals, groups and communities and thus promote their empowerment.