Human Rights and Social Work

Emeritus Professor Jim Ife holds honorary positions at the Centre for Human Rights Education at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, the Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights at Deakin University, Western Sydney University Victoria University, Melbourne. He is a former secretary of the Human Rights Commission of the International Federation of Social Workers and is also a former president of Amnesty International Australia. Previously, he was Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Western Australia and at Curtin University. His other publications include Community Development (3rd edition, 2006), Rethinking Social Work: Towards Critical Practice (1997) and Human Rights from Below: Human Rights and Community Development (2010). Karen Soldatić, Professor, School of Social Sciences and Institute Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. She was awarded a Fogarty Foundation Excellence in Education Fellowship for 2006–2009, a British Academy International Fellowship in 2012, a fellowship at The Centre for Human Rights Education at Curtin University (2011–2012), and an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (2016–2019). Her research on global welfare regimes builds on her 20 years of experience as an international (Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia), national and state-based senior policy analyst, researcher and practitioner. She obtained her PhD (Distinction) in 2010 from the University of Western Australia. Professor Linda Briskman holds the Margaret Whitlam Chair of Social Work at Western Sydney University. She previously held the Dr Haruhisa Handa Chair of Human Rights Education at Curtin University (following Jim Ife) and Professor of Social Work at Curtin University. She conducts research, writes and advocates for the rights of Indigenous peoples and asylum seekers as well as challenging racism, including Islamophobia. She is a former president of the Australian Council of Heads of Schools of Social Work and a committee member of the Australian Council for Human Rights Education. Her publications include the co-edited Indigenous Bioethics: An Appeal to Human Rights, co-edited Social Work in the Shadow of the Law (2018), Social Work with Indigenous Communities: A Human Rights Approach (2014) and the co-authored Human Rights Overboard: Seeking asylum in Australia (2008). She has won awards for her work.

1. Human rights in a globalised world; 2. Human rights: Beyond traditional formulations; 3. Public and private human rights; 4. Culture and human rights; 5. Human rights and human needs; 6. Human rights and obligations; 7. Ethics and human rights; 8. Participation in the human rights discourse; 9. Constructing human rights for social work practice; 10. Achieving human rights through social work; 11. Respecting human rights in social work practice; 12. Conclusion: Prospects for human rights practice.