A Human Rights Praxis Approach to Group Work

Overview: Integrating a human rights frame to group work can be a powerful solution to addressing critical social change within micro to global levels of practice. This workshop will introduce a human rights praxis approach to group work with activities to implement upon return to the classroom.Proposal text: Ongoing human rights issues, such as racial violence and the unequal impact of Covid-19, is a critical call to action for social work locally and abroad. Given the magnitude of human rights crises on a global scale, integrating a human rights frame to social group work can be a powerful solution to addressing critical social change within micro to global levels of practice. While conceptualizing a human rights praxis approach to social work is a relatively new endeavor, the literature is even further limited when considering what a human rights praxis approach to group work means. Based on what social work scholars have thus far outlined as different approaches to a human rights-based approach to practice, this interactive workshop will introduce a human rights praxis approach to group work.
A human rights praxis approach is at once a return to and extension of the history of group work by advocating for and moving towards the realization of human rights. The social worker has an opportunity to provide education on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international documents that the group can use as tools to influence social action and change. Weisman’s (2000) group work principles of conscious use of self, relationship, and participatory democracy will be used to lay the foundation for a human rights praxis approach to group work.
Resources will be provided to teach social group work from a human rights-based approach. Setting the foundation for understanding the connection with human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will provide a context to understand the rights-based approach. The interactive workshop will focus on the implications for social work education and social work with groups.
Related to the CSWE APM 2022, the paper will highlight how a shift towards a rights-based approach to group work has the potential to address human rights concerns. In today’s global environment, social workers are reviving their ethical obligation to participate in and raise their voices to promote social justice and human rights. The presentation will address barriers to infusing human rights in the curriculum: a lack of opportunity for educators' professional development (Authors, 2018). The time is now for social work education to shift towards a human rights paradigm as we seek a more equitable post-pandemic society.