Human Rights Day - Monday 10th December

On Human Rights Day we’re with 155 groups across the UK #Celebrating70 years of human rights protection and calling on the Prime Minister to safeguard our freedoms here at home.

Read the and share the open letter to the Prime Minister on Human Rights Day

Human rights are not some high-level, abstract concept - Social workers practice human rights every day.

The social worker in child protection balancing the rights of the child to be kept safe with the child’s right to family life – human rights.

The social worker undertaking a mental health assessment to establish if the person is a risk to themselves or others and might benefit from compulsory mental health treatment in a hospital – human rights.

The social worker talking with a young ‘looked after’ person about whether contact with a birth father should be increased or reduced – human rights.

A social worker undertaking a Deprivation of Liberty (DoLs) assessment – human rights.

A social worker giving evidence in court on a care order application – human rights. A social worker supporting an individual in a hospice in their final weeks of life – human rights.

Human rights are not simply about protections (important though these protections are) they are also about enabling individuals, families and communities to exercise choice, express themselves and thus develop as fully as possible.   

The more abstract ideas of human rights have been long in development and were given added impetus after the horrors unleashed through World War 2.

These aspirations found written form in the international conventions and treaties and national laws. But it is on the ground, on a day-to-day basis that the work of making human rights a reality takes place.

Social workers thus stand at the junction for the most vulnerable in UK society - to protect and to empower.

There is much work yet to be done, but on Human Rights Day it is good to reflect on those who came before us to make these rights a reality and to acknowledge that the task ahead for us as individual social workers, as a professional organisation and as a social work community is to strengthen, develop and build on these achievements.

Human rights events across the UK

BASW Cymru

Are holding an informal panel conversation at the Cardiff office on how social workers understand the Human Rights Act and use it in every day practice.

BASW England

The Black Country branch are holding a series of Human rights seminars in the new year – look out for further details on the BASW events pages.  

BASW Northern Ireland

The BASW NI team are holding a panel discussion to explore the concept of parental alienation and the social work role in addressing it. Parental alienation is an issue which Paula Bradshaw MLA has been consulting on, with a view to potentially introducing a private members bill (if an NI Executive is formed) to make it an offence for one parent to seek to alienate their children from the other parent in the event of family breakdown.

Paula will be participating in the discussion as will Louise Kennedy from Women’s Aid, Alex Kane (Political Columnist and Commentator), Dr Davy Hayes (Senior Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast), and others. 

SASW

On Human Rights Day the Equalities and Human Rights Committee is holding an event in the Scottish Parliament. 

SASW will be joining the event to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year also marks the 20th anniversaries of the Human Rights Act and the Scotland Act 1998 and the event will look at what progress has been made in Scotland to promote and protect human rights.

The morning sessions in the Debating Chamber will be broadcast live on Parliament TV and the Scottish Parliament’s Facebook page.

The Equalities and Human Rights Committee has now published its report, Getting Rights Right: Human Rights and the Scottish Parliament. You can read the report on the website.