Human Rights and Social Work

1. Presented by,
Seminar Group “E”
Semester:4/1
Dept. of SocialWork
Shahjalal University of Science andTechnology

2. Human rights are "commonly
understood as inalienable
fundamental rights to which
a person is inherently entitled
simply because she or he is a
human being. Human rights
are thus conceived
as universal (applicable
everywhere)
and egalitarian (the same for
everyone). These rights may
exist as natural rights or
as legal rights, in local,
regional, national,
and international law.
Social Work is the professional
activity of helping individuals,
groups, or communities enhance
or restore their capacity for
social functioning and creating
societal conditions favourable to
this goal. Social work in its
various forms addresses the
multiple, complex transactions
between people and their
environments. Its mission is to
enable all people to develop
their full potential, enrich their
lives, and prevent dysfunction.
Professional social work is
focused on problem solving and
change.

3. The term "human rights" refers
to those rights that are
considered universal to
humanity, regardless of
citizenship, residency status,
ethnicity, gender, or other
considerations.
“The social work profession
promotes social change, problem
solving in human relationships
and the empowerment and
liberation of people to enhance
well-being. Utilising theories of
human behaviour and social
systems, social work intervenes at
the points where people interact
with their environments.
Principles of human rights and
social justice are fundamental to
social work”. (International
Federation of Social workers,
IFSW: 1982)

4.  Promoting Social Change.
 Problem Solving in human relationships.
 Empowerment and liberation of people to
enhance well-being.
 Human rights and Social justice ( Principles,
Which are fundamental to Social Work ).

5. “ 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”(IFSW:2000).

6. Social workers should promote conditions that
encourage respect for cultural and social
diversity within the globe. Social workers should
promote policies and practices that demonstrate
respect for difference, support and expansion of
cultural knowledge and resources, advocate for
programmes and institutions that demonstrate
cultural competence and promote policies that
safeguard the rights and confirm equity and
social justice for all people.(NASW,1996: Page-
27)
(These are very Similar to Human Rights).

7.  Based on established concepts and definitions of human rights, Social
workers can readily identify a connection between human rights and
their profession.
 The social work profession concerns itself with helping people. Human
rights cover an entire range of political, economic and cultural needs
required to form a human society.
 Social work practice based on human rights is no panacea for
discrimination, inequality, poverty and other social problems, knowledge
of human rights can help the profession better understand its role as a
helping profession.

8. 1. Social work has to be conscious of its values and
possess a solid knowledge base, not least in the field
of human rights, to guide it in many conflicting
situations throughout its practice. While social
workers through their actions may well reinforce the
rights of clients, faulty judgment can lead them to
jeopardize those rights. Viewing its work from a
global human rights perspective helps the profession
by providing a sense of unity and solidarity without
losing sight of the local perspectives, conditions and
needs which constitutes the framework within which
social workers operate.

9. 2. Social Work works to meet the basic human needs of
people. But Nowadays it works for transform “Needs”
in the “Rights” by practicing various consideration of
human rights practice on organization principle.
Working within different political systems social
workers upholds and defend the rights of their
individuals or collective clients while attempting to
meet their needs. They do this while often employed
by established, sanctioned by authority; and their
position as agents of the state or employees of
powerful institutions or agencies, has placed many in
a precarious role.

10.  Women
 Children
 Indigenous people
 Labour
 Etc

11.  They help people undertake a social analysis
of where they are now.
 They are often the catalyst to helping people
find and achieve change in their lives.
 The process of change is through building up
trust and the social relationship with the
person making that change in their lives.

12.  An ethical dilemma is a predicament where a person must
decide between two viable solutions that seem to have
similar ethical value. An ethical dilemma can occur when a
social worker has to take a moral course of action
depending upon two different moral philosophies that
conflict with each other.
 The situations where social workers face some of the most
complex ethical dilemmas are where, for example, an
intervention has to be considered that might result in a
person being detained in a mental health hospital for the
safety of themselves or others, advice to a Court about
whether society may need protection from an offender, or
where a child and parent should live apart to prevent
harm.

13. Human Rights are inseparable from Social
work theory, values and ethics, and practice.
Rights corresponding to human needs. Have
to upheld and fostered and they embody the
justification and motivation for social work
action. Advocacy of such rights must
therefore be an integral part of social work,
even if in countries living under authoritarian
regimes such advocacy can have serious
consequences for Social work professionals.