Human Rights and Social Justice in a Global Perspective

Measuring Rights-Based Perspectives: A Validation of the Human Rights Lens in Social Work Scale

“…This paper reports on the development and validation of the HRLSW, a scale de signed to measure social workers' tendency to see individual and social problems as resulting from human rights violations. Advocates have argued that human rights are a more tangible and defined way of setting goals for social work action than the traditional aim of social justice (Mapp, 2008;Pyles, 2006); the HRLSW can help social workers to test this proposition.…”

“…Human rights often are described as a way of seeing, both in the social work and international development literature (Gruskin, Bogecho, & Ferguson, 2010;Mapp, 2008;Reichert, 2011;Uvin, 2004). Thus, a human rights lens represents an ori entation to practice.…”

“…An EFA was chosen as the first method of analysis, to be followed by a CFA. Al though several authors have used the visual metaphor "lens" when speaking about reframing practice in human rights terms (Gruskin et al, 2010;Mapp, 2008;Reich ert, 2011;Uvin, 2004), no previously published work has attempted to identify the components of that lens. Thus, the proposed three-element HRLSW is an entirely novel elaboration of the construct.…”

“…To take a rights-based approach, therefore, a social worker must learn to see cli ents as rights holders who may be vulnerable to violations of those rights; a social worker also must understand how social inequities-as well as forces like racism, sexism, and homophobia (among others)-can lead to human rights violations on a larger scale. Seeing through this human rights lens informs the social worker's assessment: It reframes social problems by foregrounding discrimination and hu man dignity and has the potential to focus social work practice on social justice and social change (Mapp, 2008).…”

Regulating Commercial Global Surrogacy: The Best Interests of the Child

“…Social workers have called for action in addressing the global inequalities, as well as ethical problems underlying intercountry adoption practice (Gibbons and Rotabi 2012;Roby et al 2013). Issues of adoption trafficking have occurred in a number of countries and include deception of birthmothers and purchasing/kidnapping of children (Cheney 2014a;Gibbons and Rotabi 2012;Mapp 2014;Rotabi and Bromfield 2017). Some countries, such as Guatemala, entered into an intercountry adoption moratorium after a number of years of serious and persistent human rights abuses in the system, including brazen child abductions into adoption (see Mónico 2013).…”