Compare and contrast the concepts of human rights and social justice

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In recent years the Council on Social Work Education has placed increased emphasis on human rights. For example, in Educational Policy the Council on Social Work Education (2015 ) states, "Service, social justice, the dignity and worth of the person, the importance of human relationships, integrity, competence, human rights, and scientific inquiry are among the core values of social work." Educational Policy (Council on Social Work Education, 2015 ) adds, "Social workers understand that every person regardless of position in society has fundamental human rights such as freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate standard of living, health care, and education. Social workers understand the global interconnections of oppression and human rights violations, and are knowledgeable about theories of human need and social justice and strategies to promote social and economic justice and human rights." Reichert, however, has noted that "human rights" has received very limited attention in the social work curriculum and in social work course materials and lectures. Often, a human rights focus is "invisible" in the social work curriculum. Social work literature continually prefers the term "social justice" in analyzing core values relevant to the social work profession. Social justice is an "ideal" in which all members of a society have the same opportunities, basic rights, obligations, and social benefits. Integral to this value, social workers have an obligation to engage in advocacy to confront institutional inequities, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression. Human rights are conceived to be fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being. Human rights are thus universal (applicable everywhere) and egalitarian (the same for everyone). Reichert compares the concept of "human rights" to the concept of "social justice": Human rights provide the social work profession with a global and contemporary set of guidelines, whereas social justice tends to be defined in vague terminology such as fairness versus unfairness or equality versus inequality. This distinction gives human rights an authority that social justice lacks. Human rights can elicit discussion of common issues by people from all walks of life and every corner of the world.