Abstract
Social work has embraced the idea of human rights. They are clearly positioned as foundational to ethical practice with many scholars arguing that social work is a human rights profession. This chapter provides an overview of human rights and its relationship with ethical social work practice. It explores the idea of human rights in depth before moving onto an examination of the position of human rights as a foundational principle for ethical practice. It concludes with an examination of human rights in the scholarly social work literature and proposes a critical human rights–based approach to practice. This chapter argues that despite the conceptual challenges associated with the idea of human rights and the human rights discourse, human rights nonetheless provide a strong foundation for ethical practice that challenges the inequality, exploitation, domination, and oppression experienced by people and communities around the world.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander C (1984) Social work in the 80s: issues and strategies. https://www.ifsw.org/about-ifsw/archives/. Accessed 1 May 2022
Androff D (2015) Practicing rights: human rights-based approaches to social work practice. Routledge, London
Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) (2020) Code of ethics. https://www.aasw.asn.au/practitioner-resources/code-of-ethics. Accessed 1 May 2022
Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (2022) What are human rights? https://humanrights.gov.au/about/what-are-human-rights. Accessed 1 May 2022
Banks S (2021) Ethics and values in social work, 5th edn. Red Globe Press, London
Berthold S (2015) Human rights-based approaches to clinical social work. Springer, Cham
Boddy J, Nipperess S (2022) Green social work and social justice. In: Webb S (ed) Routledge handbook on critical and radical social work, 2nd edn. Routledge, London. (in press)
Bozalek V, Pease B (2020) Towards post-anthropocentric social work. In: Bozalek V, Pease B (eds) Post-anthropocentric social work: critical post-human and new materialist perspectives. Routledge, London, pp 1–15
Braidotti R (2019) A theoretical framework for the critical posthumanities. Theory Cult Soc 36(6):31–61
Briskman L (2014) Social work with Indigenous communities: a human rights approach, 2nd edn. The Federation Press, Annandale
Carey S, Gibney M, Poe S (2010) The politics of human rights: the quest for dignity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Cemlyn S (2008) Human rights practice: possibilities and pitfalls for developing emancipatory social work. Ethics Soc Welfare 2(3):222–242
Chenoweth L, McAuliffe D (2020) The road to social work and human services practice, 6th edn. Cengage, South Melbourne
Connolly M, Ward T (2008) Morals, rights and practice in the human services. Jessica Kingsley, London
Cubillos-Vega C (2017) Análisis de la producción científica sobre derechos humanos en trabajo social: Perspectiva internacional (2000–2015) [Analysis of the scientific output on human rights within social work: an international perspective]. Revista Española De Documentación Cientifica 40(1):1–10. https://doi.org/10.3989/redc.2017.1.1387
Donnelly J (2003) Universal human rights in theory and practice, 2nd edn. Cornell University Press, Ithaca
Freeman M (2011) Human rights: an interdisciplinary approach, 2nd edn. Polity Press, Cambridge
Frezzo M (2011) Sociology and human rights education: beyond the three generations? Societies Without Bord 6(2):3–22. https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol6/iss2/1/
Gatenio GS (2016) A rights-based approach to social policy analysis. Springer, Cham
Gatenio Gabel S, Mapp S (2020) Teaching human rights and social justice in social work education. J Soc Work Educ 56(3):428–441
Hamilton-Smith E (1967) From the President AASW Federal Newsletter 3:3
Healy L (2008) Exploring the history of social work as a human rights profession. Int Soc Work 51(6):735–748. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872808095247
Hugman R (2013) Culture, values and ethics in social work: embracing diversity. Routledge, Abingdon
IAASW (2020) Global social work statement of ethical principles. https://www.iassw-aiets.org/archive/ethics-in-social-work-statement-of-principles/. Accessed 1 May 2022
Ife J (2007) Cultural relativism and community activism. In: Reichert E (ed) Challenges in human rights: a social work perspective. Colombia University Press, New York, pp 76–96
Ife J (2010) Human rights from below: achieving rights through community development. Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne
Ife J (2012) Human rights and social work: towards rights-based practice, 3rd edn. Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne
Ife J (2016) Human rights and social work: beyond conservative law. J Hum Rights Soc Work 1(3):3–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-016-0001-4
IFSW, IASSW (2014) Global definition of social work. https://www.ifsw.org/what-is-social-work/global-definition-of-social-work/. Accessed 1 May 2022
IFSW, IASSW (2018) Global social work statement of ethical principles. https://www.ifsw.org/global-social-work-statement-of-ethical-principles/. Accessed 1 May 2022
International Association of Schools of Social Work (IAASW) (2020) Global standards for social work education and training. https://www.iassw-aiets.org/featured/5867-announcement-of-the-updated-global-standards-for-social-work-education-and-training-the-new-chapter-in-social-work-profession/. Accessed 1 May 2022
International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) (1996) International policy on human rights. https://www.ifsw.org/human-rights-policy/#:~:text=Policy%20statement&text=The%20social%20work%20profession%2C%20through,survival%20of%20the%20human%20race. Accessed 1 May 2022
Ishay M (ed) (1997) The human rights reader: major political essays, speeches and documents from the Bible to the present. Routledge, New York
Keeney AJ, Smart AM, Richards R, Harrison S, Carrillo M, Valentine D (2014) Human rights and social work codes of ethics: an international analysis. J Soc Welfare Human Rights 2(2):1–16
Keeney AJ, Albrithen A, Harrison S, Briskman L, Androff D (2019) International analysis of human rights and social work ethics. In: Marson SM, JRE MK (eds) The Routledge handbook of social work ethics and values. Routledge, Abingdon, pp 7–14
Lundy C (2011) Social work, social justice and human rights: a structural approach to practice. University of Toronto Press, Ontario
Mapp S (2020) Human rights and social justice in a global perspective: an introduction to international social work, 3rd edn. Oxford University Press, New York
Mapp S, McPherson J, Androff D, Gatenio Gabel S (2019) Social work is a human rights profession. Soc Work 64(3):259–269. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swz023
Martínez MI, Charnley H (2019) Human rights and social justice in social work education: a critical realist comparative study of England and Spain. Eur J Soc Work 22(2):225–237
Maschi T (2016) Applying a human rights approach to social work research and evaluation: a rights research manifesto. Springer, Cham
McPherson J (2015) Human rights practice in social work: a rights-based framework and two new measures. Dissertation, Florida State University
McPherson J, Abell N (2020) Measuring rights-based practice: introducing the human rights methods in social work scales. Br J Soc Work 50:222–242
Nipperess S (2013) Human rights: a challenge to critical social work practice and education. Dissertation, Curtin University of Technology
Nipperess S (2016) Towards a critical human rights-based approach to social work practice. In: Pease B, Goldingay S, Hosken N, Nipperess S (eds) Doing critical social work: transformative practices for social justice. Routledge, Abingdon, pp 73–88
Nipperess S (2018) Caring in an uncaring context: towards a critical ethics of care in social with people seeking asylum. In: Pease B, Vreugdenhil A, Stanford S (eds) Critical ethics of care in social work: transforming the politics and practices of caring. Routledge, Abingdon, pp 105–115
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) (2022) Status of ratification: interactive dashboard. https://indicators.ohchr.org/. Accessed 1 May 2022
Offord B, Fleay C, Hartley L, Woldeyes YG, Chan D (2021) The pedagogies of human rights: in truthfulness, what should be done? In: Offord B, Fleay C, Hartley L, Woldeyes YG, Chan D (eds) Activating cultural and social change: the pedagogies of human rights. Routledge, Abingdon, pp 1–12
Reichert E (2011) Social work and human rights: a foundation for policy and practice, 2nd edn. Columbia University Press, New York
Reichert E (2016) Human rights and ethics. In: Hugman R, Carter J (eds) Rethinking values and ethics in social work. Palgrave, London, pp 16–32
Reynaert D, Nachtergaele S, De Stercke N, Gobeyn H, Roose R (2022) Social work as a human rights profession: an action framework. Br J Soc Work 52:928–945. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab083
Sewpaul V (2016) The west and the rest divide: human rights, culture and social work. J Hum Rights Soc Work 1:30–39
Sewpaul V, Henrickson M (2019) The (r)evolution and decolonization of social work ethics: the global social work statement of ethical principles. Int Soc Work 62(6):1469–1481
Sewpaul V, Kreitzer L (2021) Culture, human rights and social work: colonialism, eurocentrism and Afrocentricity. In: Sewpaul V, Kreitzer L, Raniga T (eds) The tensions between culture and human rights: emancipatory social work and Afrocentricity in a global world. University of Calgary Press, Calgary, pp 1–24
Staub-Bernasconi S (2016) Social work and human rights: linking two traditions of human rights in social work. J Hum Rights Soc Work 1:40–49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-016-0005-0
Tascón S, Ife J (2008) Human rights and critical whiteness: whose humanity? Int J Human Rights 12(3):307–327. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642980802069609
Turbett C (2014) Doing radical social work. Palgrave Macmillan, London
UN (1945) United Nations charter. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter. Accessed May 1 2022
UN (1948) Universal declaration of human rights. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights. Accessed 1 May 2022
UN (1966) International covenant on economic, social and cultural rights. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-economic-social-and-cultural-rights. Accessed 1 May 2022
United Nations (UN) (1966) International covenant on civil and political rights. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-civil-and-political-rights. Accessed 1 May 2022
United Nations (UN) (1986) Declaration on the right to development. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/declaration-right-development. Accessed 1 May 2022
Van Wormer K, Link RJ (2018) Social work and social welfare: a human rights foundation. Oxford University Press, New York
Weaver H (2016) Ethics and settler societies: reflections on social work and Indigenous peoples. In: Hugman R, Carter J (eds) Rethinking values and ethics in social work. Palgrave, London, pp 129–145
Woods G, Hölscher D (2020) Return of the post-human: developing Indigenist perspectives of social work at a time of environmental crisis. In: Bozalek V, Pease B (eds) Post-anthropocentric social work: critical post-human and new materialist perspectives. Routledge, Abingdon, pp 121–133
Wronka J (2017) Human rights and social justice: social action and service for the helping and health professions, 2nd edn. SAGE, Thousand Oaks
Zembylas M (2021) A posthumanist critique of human rights: towards an agonistic account of rights in inclusive education. In: Thomas MKE, Heng L, Walker P (eds) Inclusive education is a right, right? Brill, Rotterdam, pp 9–20
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Nipperess, S. (2023). Social Work, Human Rights, and Ethics. In: Hölscher, D., Hugman, R., McAuliffe, D. (eds) Social Work Theory and Ethics. Social Work. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1015-9_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1015-9_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-1014-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-1015-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences