Human Rights and Social Equality: Challenges for Social Work

Social Work-Social Development Volume I

Sven Hessle

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317119852
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Poverty in Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

The mission of the social work profession and the development of social policy are rooted in a set of core values and are the foundation of social work's unique purpose and perspective. Human rights offer a normative base for social work and for the formation of inclusive social policies. This informative and incisively written edited collection brings together experts from around the world to explore the tension between a normative and a political base of social work and social development and, therefore, to address the question: How can social work and social policies contribute in the endeavor to respect, protect and fulfill human rights? This volume will show that there is no straightforward answer to this question owing to the clash between different sociocultural and local conditions and demands for universal human rights.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Sven Hessle

A Global Agenda as Point of Departure – Development of Themes

This is the first volume of three covering the most important aspects of social work and social development themes in the world today. Basic to social work are human rights and social equality, which are the topics in focus of this volume. The volumes which will follow are: Environmental Change and Sustainable Social Development (Vol. II) and Global Social Transformation and Social Action: the Role of Social Workers (Vol. III).

The main international organisations representing social policy and social work gathered together in Stockholm in July 2012 under the main theme Social Work and Social Development 2012: Action and Impact.¹

At the 2012 conference, we wanted to advance the work on the Global Agenda and beyond by addressing and demonstrating the actions that might be required to develop and accomplish the Agenda – with regard to methods in practice and research, in social policy and social work education, and in a broader discourse of global commitment and cooperation.²

The conference also provided opportunities to discuss issues which the social work and social welfare sectors face every day and to ensure a closer link between evidence-based practice, policy objectives and social development goals. Furthermore, the conference revealed how the actions that were meant to develop and accomplish the Global Agenda, might impact on the conditions of people and demonstrate how actions in the social work and social development community can contribute to an enduring physical environment and sustainable social development.

Selection of Contributions for the Volumes

It is an understatement to say that the Stockholm conference was a success with about 2,500 participants representing 106 nations present. Around 2,100 abstracts and poster suggestions were received in advance for assessment by an international selected panel. Every contribution was evaluated on a five point scale by two independent members of the panel. It should be noticed that we did our best to recruiting expertise in the panel for the three main themes of the conference.

The volumes that comprise the three themes have been edited with the intention of being representative of the basic theme covered, including a wide panorama of international examples of implementations. But, first and foremost, the contributions were selected from those abstracts that the international panel evaluated as the best within its theme.

We could not cover all the subjects in the conference completely, but the priority was to deliver academic research presentations as well as presentations from practicing social workers.

I am sure that any reader, whether from social policy/welfare, social work practice, education or research will find treasures for inspiration in this kaleidoscope of current implementations and discourses round the world.

Human Rights and Social Equality: Challenges for Social Work – an Overview

The mission of the social work profession and the development of social policy are rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers, social work educators and policy practitioners and developers, are the foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective. Human rights offer a normative base for social work and for the formation of inclusive social policies. Exploration of the tension between a normative and a political base of social work and social development is a challenge. Therefore, let us address the question: How can social work and social policies contribute in the endeavor to respect, protect and fulfill human rights?

There is no straightforward and easy answer to that question, since different Modernities (Therborn 2003) and different and discontinuous changes for the Cosmopolitan Modernities (Beck and Grande 2010) create different conditions for the establishment of human rights, as well as specific uncertainties of the modern self, which has been promoted by Walter Lorenz.³

Moreover, the different subthemes demand contextually adjusted approaches within Human Rights concerns. Users of welfare services are more and more invited to dialogues as partners in decision making concerning their own situations. This becomes obvious when we look at the contributions from all corners of the world in this volume, reflecting on actions within their special focus on their own area of interest.

The demand for consideration of different sociocultural and local (provincial) conditions sometimes clashes with demands for universal rights wherein everyone should be treated alike. Maybe it is possible to formulate a “dialectical solution” through those dialogues, based on both rights-based concerns and local sociocultural traditions, built both on similarities and differences; and considering what is familiar and what is strange. Is tolerance always inclusive?

Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden), the immediate past commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, gives this volume a powerful start in Chapter 2 by calling for affirmative action for equality by asserting the equal worth of people by treating them differently according to their different circumstances and enhancing their capabilities to participate in society as equals.

Vishantie Sewpaul (South Africa) follows in the same direction in Chapter 3 when describing human rights development in Africa, and writes in the conclusion that ‘ … We need to persist in building alliances and bridges across similarities and differences and connect with progressive people’s movements on national, regional and international levels in the on-going and continued struggle to uphold human dignity and the rights of all peoples of this world’.

In Chapter 4 on Disability and the Struggle for Inclusion, Tom Shakespeare (UK) calls for social workers who act with the aim of empowering not only disabled people themselves, but also their family members and informal care-givers. The key slogan in the disabled people’s movement has been ‘nothing about us without us’.

Emma Miller (Scotland) confirms this statement in her contribution, taking a large-scale personal outcomes approach with persons with disabilities in Scotland, called Talking Points.

Education is a right of every child but for children with disability, schools hesitate or do not accept the children due to lack of knowledge and skills in dealing with children with disability. Teresa R Nuqui (the Philippines) works in a rehabilitation team in the Philippines that offers training for public school teachers and officials on disability. As a result more and more public schools are opening their doors to disabled children.

In Chapter 5, Active and Dignified Ageing, Iris Chi (Hong Kong) points to the fact that population ageing is a worldwide phenomenon. But, Asia’s elderly population is growing at a faster rate than any other region. Traditionally in Asia, support and care for the elderly has been a family responsibility. However, many Asian governments have been challenged to take on new responsibilities as the care and support provision has undergone rapid, critical changes.

Nol Reverda (the Netherlands) is creating a society in which the quality of life experienced by seniors is improved by asking them to continue contributing their qualities and talents to society. The focus is then no longer on their shortcomings and their needs for care but rather on seniors’ capacities and contribution to society – in short, a grey society without waste. This is elegantly shown in The experience index: Green or Grey society!

In her discussion of an ethic of care, Angie Ash (UK) identifies what is influencing decision-making when social workers deal with potential abuse of older persons, and in particular what constraints and dilemmas social workers face when deciding what action to take.

In an advanced empirical investigation of self-rated health among Older Adults in urban China, Weiyu Mao (USA) and Iris Chi (Hong Kong) found clear evidence of protective effects of social integration on self-rated health among older adults. Interventions should focus on preventing and reducing depressive symptoms besides strengthening and expanding social connections among older adults in order to improve health outcomes. The researchers show clearly the importance of social integration to prevent the negative impacts of social isolation.

In Chapter 6, Perspectives on Children at Risk, we emphasise four contributions with insight from different parts of the world.

Kendra Gregson (USA) introduces for the reader the important UNICEF mapping tool for the assessments of child protection systems. This tool, in action in over 40 nations, is a resource bank for preventive measures. There is recognition that the actors and institutions involved in child protection systems extend beyond the government, and include less formal actors such as neighbourhoods, local group leaders, and families and individual children.

The social work educators, Margaret McKenzie (New Zealand), Cecilie Omre (Norway), Liv Schjelderup (Norway), Shayne Walker (New Zealand) and Susan Young (Australia), present a theoretical framework with different levels for a holistic implementation of child protection practice. This framework challenges child protection in the field which has become a narrow practice of investigation and punishment of individually ‘blameworthy’ parents and care-givers in the countries of origin of the authors.

Martin Broby (Sweden) describes the Swedish project Barnablick (Eng Through the eyes of a child). This is an open, low-threshold residence for children and parents, developed by a church-based Civil Society Organisation (CSO). Their child advocacy work is first-and-foremost a practical application of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC).

In families with high risk children, there is usually a public responsibility to act for the individual protection of the children. Through the following research presentation by Brian Littlechild, (UK) we learn that social workers and managers need to be able to distinguish between compliance and manipulation in their work with the parents, and need to develop more effective means to understand all of the forms of resistant behaviours in order for social workers to carry out their professional, agency and legal functions to protect children.

In Chapter 7, Youth and Vulnerability – Current Challenges, Shai Lazer (Israel) promotes for mentorship as it is practiced in the program Youth Futures.

Longitudinal research is unfortunately rare within this area of interest, but René Olate (USA) (and collaborators from Central America and USA) show that through a unique longitudinal approach, young members of criminal gangs can be given a voice about their situation and aspirations. The researchers’ argument mentions harm reduction as one of the ways out of the youth violence in this region.

Karen Healy (Australia), Ilse Julkunen (Finland) and Synnöve Karvinen-Niinikoski (Finland) present a context-sensitive research approach that seeks to recognise, and decentre, cultural assumptions through which social phenomena are understood.

Chapter 8, Violence against Women, is a high-priority theme of our time with different context-sensible implementations and perspectives from our three contributors.

Karin Crawford (UK) opens this chapter with a research project with one of the most sensible areas of investigation, children of battered women. The wellbeing of children and young people, who witness or live in households where domestic violence takes place, can be substantially affected. Her results show that a holistic view is needed, and community-based agencies can be catalysts in bringing together a wider range of organisations and professionals who provide services to support victims of domestic violence with specific reference to the needs and rights of children.

Even if gender-based violence seems to be declining in Botswana, Simon M. Kang’ethe (South Africa) emphasises that the economic differences between men and women have generated a ground for unequal power positions which men usually exploit to advance gender-based violence.

Are changes in the legislation enough? Patricia Krieger Grossi et al. (Brazil) investigated how the new law for protecting women in Brazil was implemented. The Maria da Penha Law (Law 11.340) was created in 2006, and it is known as a Domestic Violence Act that ensures several measures to protect women, The Maria da Penha Law is the first step to show that society must intervene in the privacy of the ‘fight between husband and wife’, but a network of services for women must be available in order to ensure women’s security. Interviews with representatives from communities that, in line with the legislation, had established Policies for Women and Specialized Reference Centers indicated that the Maria da Penha Law was a step forward for their protection.

Chapter 9 deals with respect for some of the most discriminated-against people of our time, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community but the way forward seems to be split into different policy roads.

Martyn Higgins (UK) finds that relevant studies in the social work literature on LGBT people tend to indicate that LGBT individuals and LGBT issues are absent in social work curricula and social work generally. LGBTs are either invisible or part of an amorphous collection of oppressed groups within social work education. The implications for social work education (and practice) are that LGBT identities and interests need to be removed from a standardised or diversity model to a strategy that confronts and deconstructs sameness or homogenisation within existing paradigms by means of difference. An anti-curriculum is required, which undermines and questions the inclusive approaches of anti-oppressive practice and diversity. We are different and we will fight for our differences.

Shelley Craig (Canada) shows in her research that school-based groups are an effective response to the discrimination experienced by sexual minority youth (SMY), and comprise a social justice initiative by impacting equitable service access.

From the Italian discourse, Urban Nothdurfter (Italy) and Andrea Nagy (Italy) launch a debate on LGBT issues in Italian social work. Bringing about a debate on LGBT issues in social work has to be grounded on a fundamental level, and must be framed first and foremost as a matter of recognition and, hence, as a political question, according to the authors.

Chapter 10, The Right to Health and Social Equality, includes many interesting themes. Everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of health, but is this only lip service? For instance, what about the human rights of the, worldwide, increasing numbers of border-crossing migrants and asylum-seeking individuals and families, and unaccompanied minors? What right to health and care do undocumented migrants (UDM) have? And what about the harm-reduction principle for psychoactive drug users? How far are governments willing to go?

Elis Envall (Sweden) working on the Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden presents the fascinating struggle in Sweden for the growing numbers of undocumented migrants to get the right to subsidised health and medical care.

Damon Barrett (UK) develops a discussion about harm reduction, drug use and the Right of Everyone to the Highe...