SFV4400 Social sustainability, social work and Human Rights Course description

A student who has completed his or her qualification has the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student has extensive knowledge of

• how the principles of human rights are historically rooted in the development of social work and social welfare human rights in a legal perspective
• the impact of human rights on working environments within social welfare services
• the issues and ethical dilemmas related to human rights, children's rights and issues of social justice
• the safe-guarding of children's rights by the labour and welfare administration
• governments' duties to parents applying for economic assistance and what effect this has on children's rights

Skills

The student can

• analyse the duties of the state in relation to those who apply for economic benefits, and the requirements of applicants when seeking assistance
• analyse children's rights on the basis of the relationship between children, state and family
• analyse how the Act on Social Services ensures children's special needs according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN)
• assess human rights in relation to other normative constraints in society
• discuss implications of how human rights principles are practiced in different countries
• discuss and problematize normative perspectives in social research

The course is organised into a series of six four-hour long lectures and seminars. Students are expected to play an active role in lectures and seminars. Lectures are given by the course lecturer. Students will also be required to present papers, and discuss course themes during lectures and seminars. 35.

Students must submit a group work requirement, preferably in groups of 3-5 students. The work requirement has two parts. The first part is a written paper of 5-7 pages. The second part is a short oral group presentation lasting around 10 minutes, followed by a 15 minutes class discussion.

Students who have legitimate reasons for being absent will be given the chance to submit an individual paper of 7-10 pages one week after the presentation. Students who do not receive approval will be given another chance to resubmit their paper.

Both parts of the requirement must be approved. Students who do not complete or do not receive approval for the work requirement will be disqualified from submitting the home examination.

The student's learning outcome will be assessed on the basis of a seven-day written home exam on a topic given by the course lecturers. The length of one's answers is 11 pages (+/-10%).

Students are awarded grades on a descending scale from A to E for pass, and F for fail.

The home exam will be assessed by an internal and external examiner. The external examiner grades a random sample consisting of approx. 20 per cent of the written exams. The grades given for this sample provide a basis for the internal examiner's assessment. The external examiner will also grade papers where there is doubt about giving a grade of pass. Students who have failed a regular examination are entitled to sit a new examination.

Norwegian speaking students can choose to write their work requirement and written home examination in Norwegian.

Syllabus

Approx. 831 pages.

* To be published in a separate compendium .

** Available on Internet .

*Alston, P. 1994. The Best Interests Principle: Towards A Reconciliation of Culture and Human Rights. I The best Interest of the Child: Reconciling culture and Human Rights , red. Philip Alston. Oxford University Press, pp. 1-25 (24 p.).

**Benhabib, Seyla (2007). Universalism: On the Unity and Diversity of Human Rights. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 81. No. 2 (Nov. 2007). Pp. 7-32

http://www.yale.edu/polisci/sbenhabib/papers/On%20the%20Unity%20and%20Diversity%20of%20Human%20Rights.pdf

*Council of Europe Recommendation Rec. 2006. 19 on policy to support positive parenting. 13. December 2006. (7 p.)

**Clark, Zoë and Ziegler, Holger 2014. The UN Children's Rights Convention and the Capabilities Approach ' Family Duties and Children's Rights in Tension. In: Stoecklin D., Bonvin J.-M., eds. Children's Rights and the Capabilities Approach. Challenges and Prospects . Children's Well-Being: Indicators and Research. Chapter 11. Pp. 213-231. 19 p.

Hartley, Dean (2015). Social rights and human welfare . London og New York: Routledge. Taylor & Francis. 166 pages

*Dominelli, L. 2007. Human Rights in Social Work Practice. An Invisible Part of the Social Work Curriculum? I Challenges in Human Rights. A Social Work Perspective , red. E . Reichert . Columbia University Press. New York (27 p.).

*Eide, A. 2006. A Commentary to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 27 ' The Right to an Adequate Standard of Living. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Pp. 1-9 (9 p.).

*Eide, A. Catarina Krause and Allan Rosas (red.). 2001. Economic, social and cultural rights: a textbook. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 12 and 13 (all together 122 p.).

*Freeman, M. 2002. Human rights, children's rights and judgement ' some thoughts on reconciling universality and pluralism. The International Journal of Children's Rights . Nr. 10 pp. 345-354. (9 p.)

*Haas, M. 2008. International Human Rights. Routledge. T & F Group. Chapter 4 (pp. 72-99);

Chapter 9 (pp. 188-214); Chapter 10 (pp. 215-222); Chapter 12 (pp. 269-289). (All together 88 pages).

*Healy, L. M. 2008. Exploring the history of social work as a human rights profession. International Social Work 5 (6): 735-748 (13 p.).

*Henquinet, Kari Bergstrom. 2013. Translating women´s rights in Niger: What happened to the ´radical challenge to patriarchy?´ I: Derman, Bill, Anne Hellum & Kristin Bergtora Sandvik. Worlds of Human Rights ' the Ambiguities of Rights Claiming in Africa. Leiden/Boston: Brill (23 pages)

*Hoffman, S-L. (ed.). 2010. Human Rights in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 13- 25 (12 p.).

*Ife, Jim. 2012. Human Rights and Social Work. Towards rights-based practice . Chapters 5, 6. Cambridge University Press. (38 p.).

*Ife, Jim. 2012. Seven arenas of human rights from below. I: Ife, Jim. 2012. Human right from below. Chapter 6. Cambridge University Press (42 p.).

*Kjørstad, M. 2016 [2005]. Between professional ethics and bureaucratic rationality. The challenging ethical position of social workers who are faced with implementing a workfare policy. European Journal of Social Work , vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 381-398 (17 p.).

*Levine, Hephzibah and Philip Veerman. Government obligation to provide access to social security for children of minority ethno-linguistic groups: The case of Arab children in Israel. International Journal of Children's Rights. Pp. 273-281 (8 p.).

*Pecnic, N. 2007. Towards a vision of parenting in the best interests of the child. In M. Daly (ed.) Parenting in contemporary Europe: a positive approach (pp. 15-36). Council of Europe (21 p.).

*Sandbæk, M. 2008. The Council of Europe's Policy to Promote children's Rights ' Achievements and Challenges. International Journal of Child & Family Welfare, 11 (4):146-154 (8 p.).

*Sayer, A. 2008. Ethics Unbound: For a Normative Turn in Social Theory. I Realism and Social Science. Ch. 8. SAGE Publications Ltd, London (17 p.).

*Staub-Bernasconi, S. 2007. Economic and Social Rights. The Neglected Human Rights. I: Reichert, E. (ed.) Challenges in Human Rights. A Social Work Perspective , Columbia University Press. New York. (23 p.).

*Taket, Ann. 2012. Human rights and health equity. I: Taket, Ann. 2012. Health equity, social justice and human rights. Chapter 5. London: Cambridge. (26 p.)

*The European Committee of Social Rights. Digest of the Case Law of the European Committee of Social Rights . Council of Europe, 1. September 2008. Selected pages (15 p.).

*Vandenhole, W. 2007. A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 26 ' The Right to Benefit from Social Security. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Pp. 21-44 (23 p.).

*Wabwile, Michael (2010) Implementing the Social and Economic Rights of Children in Developing Countries: the Place of International Assistance and Cooperation. International Journal of Children's Rights. 18. 2010. Pp. 364-371 and 380-382. (9 p.).

*United Nations, Commitee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (FNs komité for økonomiske, sosiale og kulturelle rettigheter):

General Comment No.3 (1990): The Nature of States Parties' Obligations (5 p.).

General Comment No.18 (2005): The right to work (15 p.).

General Comment No.19 (2007): The right to social security (21 p.).

Judicial decisions

Stec and others v. UK 65731/01 and 65900/01 (5 September 2005)

Moskal v. Poland app. 10373/05 (15 September 2009 'dissens 4-3)

Klein v. Austria app. 57028/00 (3 March 2011)

**International Federation of Social Workers: Statement of Ethical Principles. 3 March 2012

**International Federation of Social Work: Global Definition of Social Work. Adopted by the IFSW General Meeting and the IASSW General Assembly in July 2014