WORLD SOCIAL WORK DAY-2016

 Social Work and Human Rights

Dr.T.K.Nair

The United  Nations (1994) stated that "social work has, from its conception, been a human rights profession". The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR ) was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10th December, 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris. It was a watershed event in the long history of the struggle of humanity for dignity and social justice.The Preamble of UDHR states among others-

recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable 
rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, 
justice and peace in the world.

Healy (2008) observes that social work has been involved in all three generations of human rights.These include the 1966 International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 

the 1966 International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), 

the 1969 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), 

the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), 
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the 1984 Convention Against Torture (CAT), the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the 1990 Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW), and the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). All these international conventions provide the basis for the human rights principles of accountability, transparency, non-discrimination, participation, self-determination, and freedom.  All these human rights principles are also values of social work.

The UDHR has 30 articles. Of these 14 are related to social justice, a key element of social work, and 10 articles relate to the social work value of dignity and worth of the person.

In sum, social work and human rights are inseparable disciplines.

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