Challenges in Human Rights - by Elisabeth Reichert (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

A lively and serious contribution to social work education, and remarkably timely... Highly recommended.-- "Choice"

An inspirational book, pleading social workers to use human rights as a guidepost.-- "European Journal of Social Work"

About the Author

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.