Delivery Of Rights Research Articles

Ensuring rights matter: England’s and Scotland’s frameworks for implementing the rights of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities

ABSTRACT In recent years, both international law (notably the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and domestic legislation have led to a new emphasis on children’s rights in the field of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England and additional support needs (ASN) in Scotland. Scotland has moved ahead of England in extending these rights, but research has pointed to shortfalls in the practical realisation of the rights agenda in both jurisdictions. The Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in temporary school closures, has created further barriers to the realisation of children’s educational rights. The Scottish Government has developed a Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment framework, and proposed new legislation incorporating the UNCRC into domestic legislation promised to generate further pressure for improvement in the delivery of rights. In England, there are less focused channels for influencing policy delivery. In the context of the domestic rights on SEND and ASN and the pandemic response, this paper provides a comparative assessment of the potential contribution of Children’s Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs) to the protection of children’s rights, finding their potential not yet fully realised.

Writing Dalit assertion: early Dalit Panther politics and legal advocacy in 1980s Tamil Nadu

This article examines the development and early politics of the Dalit Panther Iyakkam (DPI), or Dalit Panther Movement, of Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1982, the DPI advanced a political programme that petitioned state authorities qua democratic citizens. By submitting written appeals through formal institutional channels, DPI organisers lobbied officials to perform their professional duties and advocated the delivery of rights, impartial administration of law, and equitable access to social and economic development. This article explores the initial phase of Dalit Panther politics in Tamil Nadu through its own documentary evidence, drawing upon DPI Chairman A. Malaichamy’s personal letters, written appeals, and received correspondence, as well as original pamphlets and handbills distributed at political rallies. Countering interpretations of Dalit assertion that accentuate ‘illiberal’ techniques as its natural form and state welfare as its principle target, the article shows that legal advocacy served as an integral feature of early DPI politics. But, when state institutions proved unresponsive and the movement developed a grassroots presence, DPI activists expanded their programme to encompass contentious street politics as a complementary means to make claims on state authority, amplify their voices to centres of power, and demand recognition as democratic citizens.

The Interpretation of Human Rights in English Social Work: An Exploration in the Context of Services for Children and for Parents with Learning Difficulties

Human rights are a central part of a social worker's value base in contemporary practice, but the structures by which social work services are delivered can adversely affect practitioners’ abilities to uphold service user rights. This article describes the organizational development of social work services in England and the evolution of a rights focus for the practice of social work. It uses two cases, participation by children and young people looked after by the local authority and parents with learning difficulties, to determine what prevents the delivery of rights at practice level. We argue that the structures which are the product of historical development prevent workers delivering a service that is anti-oppressive and grounded in a rights-based approach to practice. This suggests that the recent changed arrangements for the delivery of social work offer the opportunity to address human rights within practice and reinvigorate the profession. The division of the profession between children's trusts and adult social services within separate local authority departments or care trusts should make dialogue between specialist social workers, which has been suppressed by internal structures, possible. Such a dialogue could contribute to saving the profession from the disintegration that its division threatens, while advancing the human rights agenda.