Usage of human rights practice by Romanian social workers

Abstract

The role of the social work professional in the 21st century is to recognize human rights in their daily practice. They should focus on challenging the structural societal conditions that diminish their clients’ rights and at the same time on initiating interventions that resist oppressive structures that deny basic political and economic rights. This quantitative study aimed at exploring the level of engagement in different rights-based practices for a small sample of Romanian social workers. Results showed that practitioners are highly involved in a ‘strengths perspective’, but scored lower on ‘activism’ dimension. Further implications for social work education are discussed.

Social Exclusion and Marginalisation of Homeless People: A Clarion Social Work Call for the Spirit of Ubuntu to Reign

“…One strategy for promoting social justice is to inculcate a human rights-based approach to social work practice (Šadić et al, 2020). Embracing a human rights-based approach to social work practice requires the professional to see clients as rights holders who may be vulnerable to violations of those rights (Iovu, 2019). Admittedly, in order to promote social justice and human rights, social workers must have the requisite tools to help homeless people claim their rights.…”

“…recommends social work methods that are incorporated into a rights-based approach practice (Iovu, 2019) and are summarised below.…”

Rights-based social work in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Validating tools for education and practice

“…The HRXSW and HRESW have been validated for use in Spain (Cubillos-Vega et al, 2018) and have been translated and used in a survey project in Taiwan (Chen and Tang, 2019). The HRMSW was recently translated for use in Romania (Iovu, 2019). Translation and validation projects are currently underway in Albania, Croatia, Kosovo, Poland, and beyond.…”

Now Is the Time for a Rights-Based Approach to Social Work Practice

“…Some social workers feel uncomfortable with the call to political action. Indeed, evidence from Bosnia, Romania, and the USA demonstrates that social workers are less comfortable with activism than they are with other aspects of the rights-based practice model (Iovu 2019;McPherson and Abell 2020;Šadić et al 2020).…”