by Allan Norman
Today is the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arguably still the most important human rights declaration.
Yesterday, I was speaking about rights without remedies, and the Universal Declaration seemed an obvious example - its broad approach to rights, that includes social rights such as housing, employment, food and clothing, rest and leisure, and collective rights including "to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realised", goes well beyond the more limited rights (controversial enough, it seems) for which we have a remedy in our Human Rights Act.
Rights without remedies, what's the point? Well, one answer I gave was that it is better that we signed up to the Declaration, as this is a fact that we can constantly remind and challenge our government with.
Another answer is specific to social work: As social workers, our legal obligation may be to adhere to the European subset of human rights, but our professional obligation is to the "universal rights" of the Universal Declaration. BASW is quite unequivocal in its Code of Ethics - "Social workers have a duty to... respect basic human rights as expressed in The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights..." (3.1.2(a)). Even if you are not a BASW member, the key purpose statement in our National Occupational Standards that human rights are fundamental to social work derives directly from the International Federation of Social Workers' definition of social work, and when IFSW refers to human rights there is no reason to assume a European understanding.
The International Federation of Social Workers has accordingly welcomed the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration: you can read their statement here.
Amnesty, meanwhile, has released the online film 'You are Powerful' as its contribution to the birthday celebrations - which is indeed powerful, and challenging:
It's just as well the Declaration is a living document after 60 years - there can be no doubt it is still very much needed to look after the interests of its founders' children and grandchildren!
Happy Birthday, Human Rights.
Allan Norman is Principal Social Worker & Solicitor at Celtic Knot (www.celticknot.org.uk), an independent law firm and social work practice.
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