Social Work and Human Rights—Linking Two Traditions of Human Rights in Social Work

Abstract

Mostly unknown in Europe and perhaps also in other regions of the world is that social work has a tradition of human rights of more than 100 years—first present in writings, second as accounts of and about human rights activists and then getting “institutionalised” in many common documents of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and the International Council of Social Welfare (ICSW). In 1988, an International Commission on Human Rights was established. These topics will be the focus of Part I, putting the main emphasis on writings of Jane Addams. As the documents of the three international associations had to be written on a very general, abstract level, I try to show the practical relevance of them for three professional areas, namely first the common ground and overlapping of the client population of social work and the one of the UN called “vulnerable individuals and groups”, second the consequences of the General Statement about “Ethics in Social Work” according the professional mandate with human rights and social justice as central ideas. Third, one can interpret the addition of social justice in the international definitions of social work as a wise restriction of social work to the “social” aspects of the profession, meaning especially social problems and social rights. This special focus will be exemplified in Part II, referring to the European context with a special focus on Switzerland and Germany. It describes two projects developed by students, now alumni of the Berlin Master of “Social Work as Human Rights Profession”. The first one has the goal of ratification of the European Social Charter of Social Rights of 1996 by the Swiss parliament; the second one shows how to use the UN instrument of Universal Periodic Reviews in the case of poverty and social rights. The article closes with some general guidelines for the further integration of human rights as elements of social work as (critical) profession.