Human Rights, Legal and Ethics Knowledge for Social Work Practice - Report Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Social Work-Human Rights, Legal and Ethics Knowledge for Social Work Practice Course: Date: Introduction Social work practices play a greater role in addressing issues of human rights protection. However, the recently passed substantial legislations must be respected because they cause profound effects on the social work practices. It is apparent that appreciative of the laws that protect human rights, strengthens and creates duties as well as powers for the social workers, and thus the legislative or legal requirements are crucial for successful social work practices. A number of women across the world have been denied the right conditions to be free from violence and accessible to refuge and legal protections such as the social security benefits, refuges in addition to other emergence accommodation (Williams 2008). The study focuses on human rights abuses faced by discriminated, refugees and internally displaced women. Some of the relevant documents on human rights issues, particularly access to justice have been analyzed to identify the key elements of their legal system to determine whether they support or impede women’s access to justice. An ethical framework has been proposed so as to enable social workers in their decision-making processes. This suggests ways through which social workers might work to address issues arising from the contemporary legal responses in regard to the oppressed women and/or breaches of their human rights. Human rights abuses and injustices faced by discriminated, internally displaced and refugee women Human rights are a set of ethical principles that have a legal dimension which states that every person needs to enjoy the conditions or rights essential for a respectable life. Women all over the world struggle for their rights to participation, safety and health as well as education and housing. Therefore, women’s rights should be respected as human rights to avoid thwarting their made efforts to achieve adequate health care, access to justice, housing and work based on their sex and marital, social and economic status as well as their race. In order to achieve legitimate equality for women across the world, extra challenges that refugees, vulnerable women as well as immigrants face must be considered and addressed (Ayesha 2003). It is important to argue that women all over the world deserve the right conditions to be free from violence and become accessible to both refuge and legal protections such as the social security benefits, refuges. This is additional human rights and entitlements provided other than emergence accommodation, understanding of the social workers, provide their children with shelter and support workers encountered in the voluntary sector to be used as their advocates (Ayesha 2003). Gender-based violence is a crime that falls into categories such as rape and incest, sexual violence against women, for example detainees and sexual harassment either at work or school a case for girls, acts of sexual violence against refugee or displaced women as well as women trafficking and domestic violence. Therefore, gender-based violence is the main social mechanism through which perpetual subordination of women is highly committed. This implies that violation of the women’s human rights is evidently related to gender system and to the mainstream of cultural values (Otto & Gronberg 2009). Human rights documents and elements of the legal system that currently support or impede women’s access to justice Social workers are required to understand the different stages of the justice process from the recognition of grievance to a more tangible solution which respects the standards for human rights as illustrated below. From the above illustration, it is important to note that in order for client people in this case discriminated women to access or claim for justice, actions and capacities are needed. In order to ensure that the grievances of women are recognized and made aware, claim and adjudicated, it is important that the legal protection, awareness, aid and counsel as well as adjudication are promoted. Successful implementation of the needed actions and capacities provides a remedy to the injustices faced by client groups such as the oppressed women. It is apparent that access to justice is a basic right and a key means to protect other rights. Therefore, access to justice should target to improve the vulnerability of minorities such as discriminated women and children since it is fundamentally linked to the promotion and protection of the human rights (Goodman & Jinks 2003). The Convention on the Elimination of All sorts of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is an important human rights convention for women. It is a human rights treaty that receives complaints individual women whose the government has approved CEDAW as well as its optional protocol which introduces the complaints a procedure to enable women make complaints in forming a written document. The optional Protocol to CEDAW works through two main mechanisms, a communication procedure that enables individual women or groups of them to submit directly their claims of rights violations under CEDAW. On the other hand, an inquiry procedure is used by the CEDAW Committee to launch their investigations into systemic violations. This indicates that activists on women’s rights are utilizing the human rights tools or documents to combat violence against women, and thus the movement to protect human rights is promoted and enriched their approach (Otto & Gronberg 2009). Criminal justice system, therefore, can be considered to be fair and effective only if the fundamental rights of all people, women and men, children, refugees and displace persons are respected. The documents and policy recommendations issued through the Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC) have described the problem of the gender-based violence as a major obstacle that must be addressed in order to enhance the status of women within the countries of those regions and across the globe as well as to achieve development through social equity (Letto-Vanamo 2005). The impact of the human rights documents current law and specified components of the legal system on discriminated women The Women’s Convention is a human rights document that discusses how the women’s right to be free from all sorts of discrimination can be protected and protected. The information provided in the document implies that the inferiority complex and oppression exhibited by women not only implies the inequality issue between men women, but also concerns the function of sex as well as gender discrimination (Otto & Gronberg 2009). The Women’s Convention is an important human right document that focuses on liberating women to enable them realizes their personal and collective potentials. The focus is changing from simply allowing women to acquire equal protection of the rights which men enjoy to ensuring that the rights are recognized. In contrast to the preceding human rights agreements, Women’s Convention creates the legal norm through which all sorts of discrimination against women are prohibited. Therefore, the Women’s Convention must be comprehensive enough to recognize that women are not only at the center of obvious inequalities. They are also subject to pervasive forms of sex and the gender discrimination woven into cultural, political and the religious structure of their own societies (Rebecca 1999). Proposed ways that social workers might work to address concerns arising from current legal responses to the oppressed women and/or breaches of their human rights It is important that the social workers develop new standards of equality which should be envisaged with a focus on the current assumptions as well as the conceptualization of the real meaning of equality based on the gender perspective. As a result the visions, needs and interests of women will be identified and protected. The social workers need to aware that integrating the gender perspective into the efforts made to mainstream the human rights mechanisms create conceptual and institutional issues. From the conceptual point of view, it can be noted that the gender perspective of human rights is more than women’s experience of violations that is also identical to men. Therefore, social workers need to give more attention to discrimination against women in relation to the accessibility and enjoyment of the rights protected within their mainstream human rights instruments. Social workers should address the issue of legal empowerment as a way to promote good governance by increasing awareness on rights as well as the knowledge of explicit issues that affect human beings, in particular discriminated women in society. As a result, there will be increased confidence and enhanced access to existing legal systems. In order to ensure that state institutions and the law-making processes are strengthened and made more efficient, they should be embedded within the sector-wide reform projects like decentralization and poverty eradication plans so as to improve access to justice (Golub 2003). On the other hand, women's rights’ groups can be successful by integrating within the international framework, the development of legal awareness or consciousness with the organization of the group access to human rights, basically referred to as empowerment (Ayesha 2003). Confronting sexual violence within the conflict situations is one way to address women’s claim for justice. Social workers should the approach important in supporting their work of the gender justice advocate whilst they work at the community as well as national level within the highly conflict-affected regions. In doing so, the social workers will be promoting the awareness and importance of international laws and the associated policies as they seek justice as their efforts to advance the women’s rights which in turn enhances the peace-building process in society (Otto & Gronberg 2009). An ethical framework for decision making, and suggested structural approaches that social workers can adopt to enhance the life of discriminated women Social workers can provide support to every woman and empower her to take the necessary actions so as improve circumstances. Since the promotion of empowerment is closely related to anti-oppressive as well as anti-discriminatory practices, it will help in the recognition and protection of women’s rights. The structures used and the provisions of the legal system can be seen as disempowering and discriminatory, it is crucial for the social workers to deal proactively with the issues of equal opportunities accessibility. Based on a decision-making framework, social workers should focus on balancing their social work practices and the legal values of protecting women’s rights so as to reach a decision (Robison & Reeser 2000). Some of the structural approaches that social workers can adopt may include connecting women with the needed resources, changing the existing social structures, allowing the women who are denied social justices to negotiate for problematic situations and de-constructing the social-political discourses so as to reveal the relationship with the individual women's struggles (Mullaly 2007). Social workers making efforts to enhance the lives of discriminated women will be required to exercise a spirit of critical consciousness as the approach may not only promote empathic exchange, but also involve taking careful actions to address the issues of women's oppression and social injustices. Facilitating access to resources is another structural approach that social workers will be required to adopt. This should involve connecting the oppressed women to the resources they need for their survival and development such as the housing for the case of homeless and internally displaced women, employment and income support as well as accessibility to health (Ayesha 2003). Conclusion Evident from the above discussion, law plays an important role in the social work practices as discovered in the passed substantial legislations which have a thoughtful effect on the social work practices. Accessibility to safe and secure housing is one of the top most basic human rights for homeless people. Deprivation of people such as the client group access to justice means denial of the human rights. It is apparent that access to justice is fundamentally associated with the promotion and protection of the human rights. Women all over the world deserve the right conditions to be free from violence and become accessible to both refuge and legal protections. Bibliography Ayesha M. I., (2003), Gender Issues in the Challenge of Access to Human Rights, International Council on Human Rights Policy, working paper series. Goodman, R & Jinks, D., (2003), Measuring the Effects of Human Rights Treaties, EJIL, 14(1), 171-183. Golub, S., (2003), Beyond Rule of Law Orthodoxy: The Legal Empowerment Alternative, Carnegie Papers, and Rule of Law Series no. 41. Retrieved April 23, 2012 from, Letto-Vanamo, P., (2005), Access to Justice: A Conceptual and Practical Analysis with Implications for Justice Reforms. Retrieved April 23, 2012 from, Mullaly, B. (2007), the new structural social work (3rd Ed.). Toronto: Oxford University Press. Otto, D & Gronberg, H., (2009), confronting sexual violence in conflict situations. International Women’s Tribune Centre. Rebecca, C., (2009), Women's Health and Human Rights: The Promotion and Protection of Women's Health through International Human Rights Law, Toronto, and University of Toronto. Robison, W. & Reeser, L. C. (2000), Ethical decision-making in social work. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Williams, J., (2008), Human rights and social work: towards rights-based practice / Jim Ife, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Read More

It is important to argue that women all over the world deserve the right conditions to be free from violence and become accessible to both refuge and legal protections such as the social security benefits, refuges. This is additional human rights and entitlements provided other than emergence accommodation, understanding of the social workers, provide their children with shelter and support workers encountered in the voluntary sector to be used as their advocates (Ayesha 2003). Gender-based violence is a crime that falls into categories such as rape and incest, sexual violence against women, for example detainees and sexual harassment either at work or school a case for girls, acts of sexual violence against refugee or displaced women as well as women trafficking and domestic violence.

Therefore, gender-based violence is the main social mechanism through which perpetual subordination of women is highly committed. This implies that violation of the women’s human rights is evidently related to gender system and to the mainstream of cultural values (Otto & Gronberg 2009). Human rights documents and elements of the legal system that currently support or impede women’s access to justice Social workers are required to understand the different stages of the justice process from the recognition of grievance to a more tangible solution which respects the standards for human rights as illustrated below.

From the above illustration, it is important to note that in order for client people in this case discriminated women to access or claim for justice, actions and capacities are needed. In order to ensure that the grievances of women are recognized and made aware, claim and adjudicated, it is important that the legal protection, awareness, aid and counsel as well as adjudication are promoted. Successful implementation of the needed actions and capacities provides a remedy to the injustices faced by client groups such as the oppressed women.

It is apparent that access to justice is a basic right and a key means to protect other rights. Therefore, access to justice should target to improve the vulnerability of minorities such as discriminated women and children since it is fundamentally linked to the promotion and protection of the human rights (Goodman & Jinks 2003). The Convention on the Elimination of All sorts of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is an important human rights convention for women. It is a human rights treaty that receives complaints individual women whose the government has approved CEDAW as well as its optional protocol which introduces the complaints a procedure to enable women make complaints in forming a written document.

The optional Protocol to CEDAW works through two main mechanisms, a communication procedure that enables individual women or groups of them to submit directly their claims of rights violations under CEDAW. On the other hand, an inquiry procedure is used by the CEDAW Committee to launch their investigations into systemic violations. This indicates that activists on women’s rights are utilizing the human rights tools or documents to combat violence against women, and thus the movement to protect human rights is promoted and enriched their approach (Otto & Gronberg 2009).

Criminal justice system, therefore, can be considered to be fair and effective only if the fundamental rights of all people, women and men, children, refugees and displace persons are respected. The documents and policy recommendations issued through the Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC) have described the problem of the gender-based violence as a major obstacle that must be addressed in order to enhance the status of women within the countries of those regions and across the globe as well as to achieve development through social equity (Letto-Vanamo 2005).

The impact of the human rights documents current law and specified components of the legal system on discriminated women The Women’s Convention is a human rights document that discusses how the women’s right to be free from all sorts of discrimination can be protected and protected.

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