Social Human Rights Research Articles

IMUNIDADE DE JURISDIÇÃO E A EFETIVIDADE DOS DIREITOS HUMANOS SOCIAIS

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo estudar a imunidade de jurisdição dos Estados e das Organizações Internacionais de modo a confrontar a sua aplicabilidade com a proteção dos direitos humanos sociais. Para tanto, utilizam-se os métodos indutivo e dialético a fim de se examinar casos práticos e correlacioná-los com o uso da teoria da imunidade de jurisdição e de execução. A problemática abrange o fato de que os atos de guerra cometidos pelos Estados gozam de imunidade absoluta a ponto de mitigarem a proteção dos direitos humanos. No mesmo aspecto tem-se o debate que trata da execução de um Estado estrangeiro em face de outro. Nem sempre a execução é dotada de plena efetividade havendo, portanto, um abrandamento da efetiva proteção aos direitos humanos sociais.

Listen First: Dialogic Research Ethics With Caribbean Signing Communities

Successful research of Caribbean signed languages and deaf communities involves negotiating complex communication ethics toward both people and languages. In this article, I ground a call for ethical listening to Caribbean deaf and signing communities in sociolinguistic research that investigated deaf community and sign language boundaries in the Caribbean. I argue that a dialogic ethic that privileges listening is foundational for ethical research with Caribbean deaf and signing communities by discussing two ethical challenges that were central to understanding their narrative ground: the communicative construction of categories of linguistic membership and advocacy of social justice and human rights.

Fighting Injustice and Intolerance: Re-Presentations of Race and Religion at the Muhammad Ali Center

This article explores the significance of the Muhammad Ali Center as a site where meanings associated with “race” and “religion” are constructed, contested and potentially transformed. The Muhammad Ali Center is examined as an example of an increasing number of cultural institutions (i.e., cultural centers, museums, arts spaces etc.) engaged in the strategic re-presentation of issues of cultural difference and socio-political conflict, towards the ends of promoting social justice and/or human rights. The article draws upon theories and methods in cultural studies, religious studies, and museums studies in order to explore the significance of the representational and curatorial strategies of such cultural institutions for understanding alternative approaches to influencing and/or intervening in public discourses and practices surrounding issues of racial injustice and religious intolerance.

The Power to Judge, the Power to Act: the Argentine Supreme Court as a Policymaker

AbstractEven though the role of courts to enforce economic, social and cultural rights through structural remedies is well established, the implementation stage of rulings following successful litigation seems to be an area of research still in the making. In the Global South, certain constitutional courts have taken on such litigation as a way to advance economic and social rights. The Judiciary Power thus became a key actor in the framing and execution of public policies. This paper examines how the Argentine Supreme Court has intervened after 2001 in public policies regarding the enforcement of social security, environmental and human rights.

Introduction: reflections on the concept and implementation of transformative reparations

My commitment to securing appropriate redress for violations of women’s rights is rooted in many decades of social justice and human rights activism in my home country of South Africa. I was engage...

Critical Reflexivity beyond the Classroom: Social Work Students' Perspectives of Communities in Kwazulu-Natal

Social work students are expected to adopt a critical reflexive approach in dealing with the development challenges facing communities in contemporary South Africa. As an epistemological position that merges postmodernist thinking with the radical humanist goals of structural social work theory, the concept of critical reflexivity is often conflated with critical reflective competencies in the application of learning. Using qualitative methodology, the authors present 74 students’ experiences of profiling communities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Three themes emerged from the data distilled through profile reports and interviews: reflexivity and conceptualising community in practice, reflexivity in community profiling, and reflexivity and community needs. The authors conclude that a critically reflexive stance is fundamental for students to adopt in community work practice, and to recognise how their own social and cultural influences contribute to the process of knowledge creation and the promotion of social justice and human rights in communities.

1965-1973: Social work and human rights: An introduction

Introduction to:Powles, Guy, Ombudsman. (1968). Guest editorial. New Zealand Social Worker, News and Opinions, 4(4), 3-5.Jack, Miss Avery, (1968). Finland. New Zealand Social Worker, News and Opinions, 4(4), 9-13.

Local resources for local rights? The Mumbai fundraiser's dilemma

ABSTRACTLocal human rights organizations (LHROs) in the global South are increasingly keen to raise funds from cocitizens and local businesses to diversify their funding, to increase their political legitimacy, and to bolster their resilience to fluctuations in international donor trends. This concern with local funds has assumed new urgency today following the global governmental crackdown on foreign aid to domestic civil society. This article focuses on the potential for local human rights fundraising in Mumbai, one of India's most important economic centers, as well as a hub of social movements and human rights organizing. Like other governments, India has launched a crackdown on foreign aid to local NGOs. Interviews with a representative sample of Mumbai's LHRO leaders indicate that they depend on foreign aid, worry about government regulation, and are keen to raise funds from the city's booming corporate sector. Our representative survey of 1,680 adults living in Mumbai and its rural environs, however, shows that LHRO fundraising among Mumbai businesses could pose an acute reputational challenge. While Indian human rights groups do enjoy some public support in Mumbai, the public's trust in these groups is statistically associated with greater mistrust in local businesses. LHRO leaders in Mumbai face a critical dilemma: The city's booming corporate sector presents a tempting fundraising target but any attempt to access these funds risks undermining the local rights sector's reserves of public support.

Human Rights and Social Justice

This paper addresses the question of the normative domains of human rights and social justice. Today, the dominant view in political philosophy is that they occupy largely distinct spheres, with social justice being a set of stronger egalitarian norms and human rights functioning as baseline protections against common threats posed by states to the general interests of persons subjected to them. Reflecting on current human rights practice and discourse, this paper develops a reconstructed normative model of social justice and human rights as nested membership norms in political societies. By connecting membership to processes of political legitimacy, human rights are conceptualized as increasingly functioning as the language of contesting and reforming barriers of exclusion to that status. This leads to an understanding of the possible content of human rights that is dynamic and relational, bringing it closer in line with the egalitarianism of social justice.

Social education, human rights and sustainability in community development

Social education, human rights and sustainability in community development

The Human Right to Social Security and Its Impact on Socio-Political Action in Germany and Finland

Social human rights have rarely been given attention in social work research or comparative studies on welfare states. The paper aims at filling the gap by analysing the conception of human beings inherent in human rights and in unemployment policy documents in Germany and Finland. Its focus lies on the right to social security, a central norm of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The main question is what impact does the right to social security have on socio-political action in Germany and Finland. The results of the analysis, which was based on the objective hermeneutics, revealed a structural similarity between the conceptions of human beings in both countries. Unemployed people are labelled as deficient and potentially in need of educational measures. Their autonomy is curtailed, sometimes severely. In this sense, the right to social security has hardly any impact. The social work profession in theory and practice should use human rights as a tool against these new forms of oppression.

Beyond Words: Comics in the Social Work Classroom

ABSTRACTEquipping future social workers to interrogate social justice, human rights, and cultural issues requires a revision of social work education. Culturally relevant teaching is increasingly important in today’s globalized world. In this article, we explore the role of comics as a form of social work pedagogy to tackle complex social issues. The article argues that comics offer specific benefits to educators seeking to develop critical thinking and self-reflexivity in their students. We present findings from focus group discussions with social work students to examine the relevance of comics in social work education. Ultimately, the use of comics as a teaching tool contributes to the effective preparation of future social workers through the mutual transformation it engenders in students and educators.

Optimistic Universalism

Professor Ali Mazrui embodied an optimistic universalism and the capacity to find common ground for global dialogue amidst conflicts. When receiving a lifetime achievement award – Mazrui, in his acceptance speech, pointed to two specific poems of Rumi and Wordsworth as a source of inspiration for awakening the ‘love of beauty and the beauty of love.’ In the context of the shared humanity of these experiences, one realizes the ability of such experiences to create a common language across barriers, a language of social justice and human rights. Using integrative interdisciplinary approaches from the fields of comparative religion and comparative literature, this essay explores the similarities and differences of the messages of Mazrui, Rumi, and Wordsworth to achieve an awakening. Such an awakening involves the individual’s awareness of being a part of something greater, often achieved in nature, which may serve as a basis for the universal grammar of social justice and human rights. Hermeneutic and phenomenological approaches, including intersubjectivity, are employed in the exegesis of the poetic material and its context. Also explored are the historical similarities and differences, anthropological and psychobiographical factors in the life histories of Mazrui, Rumi and Wordsworth. Ultimately, the dialectic between the polarities of themes of the pain of separation and longing for union, often linked to losses and life changing experiences such as migration, can be understood as opportunities for personal growth – motivating individuals to reach toward connection, reparation and the ability to engage in cultural dialogue and move past difference toward social justice and human rights.

Direct Application of International Economic and Social Human Rights in the Netherlands: Towards a Context-Dependent Approach?

Recently, the Netherlands Supreme Court (“Hoge Raad”) formulated a new test for determining the direct application of international law in the Dutch legal order. The court added new aspects to those established in earlier case law. Firstly, that the fact that a provision affords the State freedom of choice and policy does not stand in the way of direct application. Secondly, that direct application of an international norm may be dependent on the actual context in which a provision is invoked. These criteria will influence the judicial application of international economic and social human rights in the Dutch legal order. Furthermore, the second criterion, which determines that the direct application depends on the context of the case is controversial. It provides a potentially wide discretionary authority for the court to allow or not allow a treaty provision to be applied directly. Moreover, the test appears to be in conflict with the Constitution for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The article discusses the problems of the context-based approach and the possible consequences of the test formulated by the Supreme Court for the application of international economic and social rights in the Netherlands.

СОЦІАЛЬНІ ПРАВА ЛЮДИНИ: ЗАГАЛЬНОТЕОРЕТИЧНА ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА

In the article, within the framework of the general exploration of human rights was made an attempt to substantiate the importance of social rights as a separate category of rights that belongs to the «second generation» of human rights and needs analysis within the state and legal reality. Attention was paid to the historical aspect of the development of social rights. The events, that inevitably influenced the emergence, development and ideological justification of the need for recognition of social rights are analyzed, the causal links involved in their formation are also indicated. In publication the connection of social rights with the concept of the welfare state is revealed, the main purpose of this state is to promote the realization of these rights. The fundamental features of this form of organization of government and society make it possible to evaluate the great dependence of the realization of social rights on socially oriented policy and economy of the country. For a deep understanding of the essence and ideas embedded in the content of social rights, the features and characteristics of this category of rights are studied. Attention is also paid to the different approaches to the concept of social rights expressed by researchers in this issue. The sources in which social human rights are legally fixed are considered (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Social Charter, the Constitution of Ukraine, the German Social Code). Also there is a comparative analysis of the enshrinement of these rights in courses mentioned above. Particular attention is paid to the characteristics of social rights listed in the German Social Code, as well as to the content of the agreement between Ukraine and Germany about cooperation in the social sphere. Great attention in the publication is paid to the studying of events in Ukraine that hinder the realization of social rights. The coronavirus pandemic and military events in the East of the country have negative impact on the implementation of social rights. The statistical data confirming the violation of the housing rights and medical care at present are given. Conclusion is formulated about the need of analyzing social rights as a specialized group of human rights, which have passed a significant historical path of formation and have unique characteristics and features.

Using adolescents' drawings to reveal stereotypes about ethnic groups in Guatemala.

It is important to identify stereotypes about indigenous people because those stereotypes influence prejudice and discrimination, both obstacles to social justice and universal human rights. The purpose of the current study was to document the stereotypes, as held by Guatemalan adolescents, of indigenous Maya people (e.g., Maya) and nonindigenous Ladinos in Guatemala (the 2 main ethnic groups in Guatemala). Guatemalan adolescents (N = 465; 38.3% female; Mage = 14.51 years; SDage = 1.81 years) provided drawings and written characteristics about indigenous Maya and nonindigenous Ladino people, which were then coded for patterns in the data. These patterns included negative stereotypes, such as the Maya being lazy and Ladina women being weak; and positive stereotypes, such as the Maya being caring and warm and Ladino men being successful. There were also interactions between the participants' own gender and ethnicity and how they depicted the target they were assigned. For example, male participants were unlikely to depict male targets of either ethnicity engaging in homemaking activities. Finally, there was evidence of in-group bias based both on gender and ethnicity. These findings suggest that perhaps because indigenous groups around the world share some common negative stereotypes, an understanding of these stereotypes will aid in decreasing prejudice and discrimination against indigenous people, could reduce intergroup conflict, and increase access to basic human rights. (PsycINFO Database Record

NATURALNE I SPOŁECZNE PRAWA CZŁOWIEKA W NAUCZANIU PAPIEŻA LEONA XIII

THE NATURAL AND SOCIAL HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE POPE LEON XIII’S TEACHINGSummary The aim of this paper is to show that the category of human rights, one of the fundamentals of the modern political debate, was present in the pope’s social teaching since its beginning, namely since the pontificate of Leon XIII (1878 – 1903). A comparison between the pope’s views and the liberal doctrine of human rights indicates that both in the pope’s teaching and in the liberal conceptions, not only the subject of those rights but also their object are repeatedly identical. Their origin though is undoubtedly different. For the liberals the source of human rights are the social convention and the positive law. For Leon XIII the fundamental of human rights is the conviction that human being as imago Dei possesses an inalienable dignity which constitutes the foundation and the source of his rights. The second source of human rights in the pope’s teaching is the natural law. Leon XIII considered the right to possess private property to be the most important of human rights. The conception of natural and social human rights developed by him was a turning point in the social teaching of the Catholic Church, and moreover it was Leon XIII who presented it for the first time.

Das Noites em Vigilia à Ocupação das Escolas: Estado de Exeção, Subjetividade e Direitos Sociais na Pós-Modernidade

New social movements are occupying the public space. They are watching the preservation of human rights and are reinventing politics. The article is a contribution for the discussion of the state of exception and the subjectivity of the exercise of citizenship as a praxis to defend social human rights. Inspired by Luis Alberto Warat, the text treats the problem within a critical view of law based on the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. So, the state of anomia present in globalization is treated within a dialectical perspective: bears totalitarian violence and the chance for reinvention of rights.

Capturing complexity in how configurations of firm Internal Orientations impact corporate social performance outcomes: Breaking from the dominant logic of symmetric-variable to asymmetric-case-based theory and testing

This study exemplifies how an asymmetric and case based (configurational) research approach (using fuzzy state logic and complexity theory) is useful for conceptualization and explanation of complex topics and heterogeneous outcomes. The study here analyses the recipes (condition combinations) for Internal Orientation constructs (IO: strategic intent, CSP management, strategic orientation and industrial standards) among multi-national companies (MNCs) indicating “high” levels of corporate social performance (CSP) and the “United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment” (UNPRI) ESG factor framework (Environment, Social-human rights, and Governance) – separately and as a whole. The study applies a mixed methods research design and includes comparing ESG with financial performance across a “Top-100 Sustainable Companies Index” (n = 82 of MNCs trading on the Swedish stock exchange). The study's findings support the core tenets of complexity theory; all four IO constructs affect a high E or S or G outcome but not all three outcomes in combination.

Christian protesters for democracy in Taiwan: a study of two American missionaries under Taiwanese martial law

Christians played a significant role in the course of Taiwan’s self-determination movements and the pro-democratic Tangwai movement during the 1960s and 1970s. While most researchers laid their focus on the Presbyterian Church ministers, the stories of Methodist pastor Milo Thornberry and Catholic priest Ronald Boccieri have rarely been mentioned. Thornberry helped Peng Ming-min to escape the country and Boccieri sheltered Chen Chu in his parish church. Consequently, the two American missionaries were listed as personae non gratae and expelled from the island by the Kuomintang (nationalist) regime. Although they were involved in the respective political incidents to different degrees, they had some things in common: compassion for native Taiwanese, concern for social justice and human rights, and conviction in witnessing to the gospel by non-violent action and fighting against injustice. This article uses interviews, autobiographies, memoirs, Foreign Ministry archives and newspapers to recount their stories that have not appeared in the historiography of their churches. It discusses how the Catholic and Methodist Churches maintained harmonious relations with the government for the benefit of their evangelistic work during the period of martial law. Finally it looks into the reasons why the two missionaries dared to disobey their churches’ official positions and the Washington government’s instruction that expatriates in Taiwan should not interfere in local politics.