Challenges in Human Rights: A Social Work Perspective »

Elisabeth Reichert is a professor at the Southern Illinois University of Carbondale School of Social Work and is the author of two previous books on human rights.

By using human rights as a guidepost, social workers can help create social welfare policies that better serve societal needs. However, in applying human rights to contemporary situations, social workers often encounter challenges that require thinking outside the box. Bringing together provocative essays from a diverse range of authors, Elisabeth Reichert demonstrates how approaching social work from a human rights perspective can profoundly affect legislation, resource management, and enforcement of policies. Topics include the reconciliation of cultural relativism with universal human rights; the debate over whether human rights truly promote economic and social development or simply allow economically developed societies to exploit underdeveloped countries; the role of gender in the practice of human rights; the tendency to promote political and civil rights over economic and social rights; and the surprising connection between the social work and legal professions.

List of Abbreviations Introduction: Social Work Perspectives on Human Rights, by Elisabeth Reichert
1. Human Rights in the Twenty-first Century: Creating a New Paradigm for Social Work, by Elisabeth Reichert
2. Human Rights in Social Work Practice: An Invisible Part of the Social Work Curriculum?, by Lena Dominelli
3. Global Distributive Justice as a Human Right: Implications for the Creation of a Human Rights Culture, by Joseph Wronka
4. Cultural Relativism and Community Activism, by Jim Ife
5. Development, Social Development, and Human Rights, by James Midgley
6. Using Economic Human Rights in the Movement to End Poverty: The Kensington Welfare Rights Union and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, by Mary Bricker-Jenkins, Carrie Young, and Cheri Honkala
7. Economic and Social Rights: The Neglected Human Rights, by Silvia Staub-Bernasconi
8. Human Rights and Women: A Work in Progress, by Janice Wood Wetzel
9. Human Rights Violations Against Female Offenders and Inmates, by Katherine van Wormer
10. Children's Rights as a Template for Social Work Practice, by Rosemary J. Link
11. Globalization, Democratization, and Human Rights: Human-Made Disasters and a Call for Universal Social Justice, by Brij Mohan
12. Law and Social Work: Not-So-Odd Bedfellows in Promoting Human Rights, by Robert J. McCormick Index