Human Rights-Based Approaches to Clinical Social Work
By S. Megan Berthold, formerly of HealthRight International.
This brief provides a framework for how a rights-based approach can be applied to clinical social work practice. The brief then illustrates this approach by applying it to practice with survivors (and in one case perpetrators) of several major human rights issues: torture, human trafficking, and intimate partner/family violence. A unique contribution to the social work literature, this brief demonstrates the application and benefits of a rights-based approach outside of the realm of macro-social work practice and judicial and legislative efforts. Common challenges to a rights-based approach are explored and case studies and sample class exercises are included to help practitioners and students apply the principles to scenarios and dilemmas they may confront in real-world practice.