The realization of human rights standards depends in part on the commitment of local actors. It can be argued that local public service professionals such as social workers can also be regarded as key players. The possible role of social workers becomes imperative if these professionals are working in a policy context that is not congruent with human rights. If existing laws or policies cause or maintain disrespect for human rights, social workers are in a position to observe that this is having an adverse impact on clients. When social workers are regarded as human rights actors, the question arises how they can or should respond to law and policy that impedes them in carrying out their work with respect for human rights. This article adds to existing theories on social workers as human rights actors by examining the practices of social professionals working in such a challenging policy context. The research took place among professionals in social district teams in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Following a series of decentralizations and austerity measures the social care landscape in the Netherlands has changed drastically over the last few years. As a result, social workers may find themselves on the one hand trying to realize the best possible care for their clients while on the other hand dealing with new laws and policy expectations focused on self-reliance and diminished access to specialist care. The article explores how social professionals’ responses to barriers in access to care affect human rights requirements. In doing so, this socio-legal study provides insight into the ways in which everyday social work relates to the realization of human rights at the local level.
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The importance of specific professions for human rights realization is increasingly recognized. Journalists, teachers, and civil servants are all considered to play a role because their work affects individual rights. This is also the case for social workers. The connection between social work and human rights is evident in the large amount of literature explaining how human rights relate to social work. At the same time there is more attention for human rights localization. These fields of knowledge are related: social workers are local professionals and if they start applying human rights in their work this may influence human rights localization. This article contributes to existing debates on human rights localization by reflecting on the potential role of social workers in local human rights efforts in the Netherlands. Since human rights localization in general and human rights application in social work are recent phenomena in the Netherlands this provides a useful case study for a qualitative analysis on whether and how social workers can be regarded as actors in human rights localization. By connecting different actors that are said to play a role in human rights localization to proposed forms of human rights application by social workers this article identifies three possible roles for social workers in human rights localization: as human rights translators, as human rights advocates, and as human rights practitioners.
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What do human rights look like when we present them as action-based, bottom-up concepts, and not exclusively as legal items? After all, when we narrow down human rights to a legal concept only, we do not do justice to its meaning. In many professions and branches the idea of human rights is used in jargon, as guiding principles and as a source of inspiration. Human rights make a difference, albeit not necessarily as an enforceable legal concept. This facet of human rights - its practical application beyond lawmakers and lawyers - is deeply underexplored and deserves much more attention. Applied human rights are not per se a matter of lawmaking and enforcement only: it can be part of a mission and vision of companies, it is sometimes at the core of artistic work, it can be a leading principle in social work - especially considering the rights of the child, and it is used as a guiding principle in technological innovation. Human rights are not just for lawyers, but also for managers, engineers, social workers, musicians, local governments, law enforcers, designers and business people. However, and not surprisingly, in each branch the impact and implications of human rights differ. Therefore, it is time for a comprehensive textbook in which the idea of human rights is not exclusively explored as a legal concept, but instead discussed from various applied perspectives. In this book, we explore human rights as an applied concept: as something we do. The chapters are written by an international group of leading experts in a wide range of disciplines and themes, including technology development, social studies, pedagogy, business strategy, public governance, the arts, philosophy and law.
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Human rights groups are increasingly calling for the protection of their right to privacy in relation to the bulk surveillance and interception of their personal communications. Some are advocating through strategic litigation. This advocacy tool is often chosen when there is weak political or public support for an issue. Nonetheless, as a strategy it remains a question if a lawsuit is strategic in the context of establishing accountability for indiscriminate bulk data interception. The chapter concludes that from a legal perspective the effect of the decision to litigate on the basis of the claim that a collective right to group privacy was violated has not (yet) resulted in significant change. Yet the case study, the British case of human rights groups versus the intelligence agencies, does seem to suggest that they have been able to create more public awareness about mass surveillance and interception programs and its side-effects
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Most European states have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), but implementation varies at national and local levels with municipalities often playing a key role. Decentralization policies have often led to municipalities providing social support as well, but little attention has been paid to the accessibility of municipal support for persons with disabilities in the light of the CRPD. Therefore, this article presents the Dutch 2015 Social Support Act (SSA) as a case study. The SSA introduces the right to an assessment. This legal evaluation moment has far-reaching consequences for persons with disabilities as it serves as the gateway for access to reasonable accommodations under the CRPD. Dutch municipal councils implement their assessment systems in different ways, but social district teams are usually set up to execute the assessment under the mandate of the municipality. It is often the case that social workers fulfil both counselling and gatekeeping roles, despite the fact that they are not necessarily trained to combine these dual responsibilities. This article identifies impeding factors that influence the gaining of access to municipal social support at the level of the social system, the involved organizations and the individual professionals. It takes a legal-anthropological approach based on in-depth multidisciplinary interviews with experts in the field of disability rights advocacy, social policy and human rights, or with experiential expertise. The results indicate a lack of alignment between the SSA and the CRPD. The discussion gives recommendations for a broader implementation of the CRPD.
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Indigenous rights’ relationship to ecological justice in Amazonia has not been explicitly explored in the literature. As social scientists rarely talk about violence against non-humans, this case study of conservation in Amazonia will explore this new area of concern. Ethical inquiries in conservation also engage with the manifold ways through which human and nonhuman lives are entangled and emplaced within wider ecological relationships, converging in the notion of environmental justice, which often fails to account for overt violence or exploitation of non-humans. Reflecting on this omission, this chapter discusses the applicability of engaged social science and conservation to habitat destruction in Amazonia, and broader contexts involving violence against non-humans. The questions addressed in this chapter are: is the idea of ecological justice sufficiently supported in conservation debate, and more practical Amazonian contexts? Can advocacy of inherent rights be applied to the case of non-humans? Can indigenous communities still be considered 'traditional' considering population growth and increased consumptive practices? Concluding that the existing forms of justice are inadequate in dealing with the massive scale of non-human abuse, this chapter provides directions for conservation that engage with deep ecology and ecological justice in the Amazonian context. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-29153-2 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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This study explores legal consciousness of social workers within the framework of the 2015 Social Support Act (SSA) in the Netherlands. The aim of this law is to provide social support and care to citizens with impairments or chronic psychological or psychosocial problems, with the goal of enabling people to live independently and actively participate in society. The SSA grants entitlement to a needs assessment to applicants, essential for accessing personalized provisions. This assessment is a pivotal legal evaluation for persons with disabilities to ultimately exercise their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ratified by the Netherlands in 2016. With the use of the concept of legal consciousness, this study aims to contribute to understanding social workers’ experiences, understandings, and actions in relation to law in the context of legal decision-making on behalf of the council.
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Digital surveillance technologies using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as computer vision and facial recognition are becoming cheaper and easier to integrate into governance practices worldwide. Morocco serves as an example of how such technologies are becoming key tools of governance in authoritarian contexts. Based on qualitative fieldwork including semi-structured interviews, observation, and extensive desk reviews, this chapter focusses on the role played by AI-enhanced technology in urban surveillance and the control of migration between the Moroccan–Spanish borders. Two cross-cutting issues emerge: first, while international donors provide funding for urban and border surveillance projects, their role in enforcing transparency mechanisms in their implementation remains limited; second, Morocco’s existing legal framework hinders any kind of public oversight. Video surveillance is treated as the sole prerogative of the security apparatus, and so far public actors have avoided to engage directly with the topic. The lack of institutional oversight and public debate on the matter raise serious concerns on the extent to which the deployment of such technologies affects citizens’ rights. AI-enhanced surveillance is thus an intrinsically transnational challenge in which private interests of economic gain and public interests of national security collide with citizens’ human rights across the Global North/Global South divide.
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Introduction: Falling causes long term disability and can even lead to death. Most falls occur during gait. Therefore improving gait stability might be beneficial for people at risk of falling. Recently arm swing has been shown to influence gait stability. However at present it remains unknown which mode of arm swing creates the most stable gait. Aim: To examine how different modes of arm swing affect gait stability. Method: Ten healthy young male subjects volunteered for this study. All subjects walked with four different arm swing instructions at seven different gait speeds. The Xsens motion capture suit was used to capture gait kinematics. Basic gait parameters, variability and stability measures were calculated. Results: We found an increased stability in the medio-lateral direction with excessive arm swing in comparison to normal arm swing at all gait speeds. Moreover, excessive arm swing increased stability in the anterior–posterior and vertical direction at low gait speeds. Ipsilateral and inphase arm swing did not differ compared to a normal arm swing. Discussion: Excessive arm swing is a promising gait manipulation to improve local dynamic stability. For excessive arm swing in the ML direction there appears to be converging evidence. The effect of excessive arm swing on more clinically relevant groups like the more fall prone elderly or stroke survivors is worth further investigating. Conclusion: Excessive arm swing significantly increases local dynamic stability of human gait.
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In recent years, the fight against terrorism and political violence has focused more on anticipating the threats that they pose. Therefore, early detection of ideas by local professionals has become an important part of the preventive approach in countering radicalization. Frontline workers who operate in the arteries of society are encouraged to identify processes toward violent behavior at an early stage. To date, however, little is known about how these professionals take on this screening task at their own discretion. Research from the Netherlands suggests that subjective assessment appears to exist. In this article, we argue that the absence of a clear norm for preliminary judgments affects prejudice or administrative arbitrariness, which may cause side effects due to unjustified profiling.
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