Social Justice In Human Services

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Human rights are equal rights that apply to every human being. Some of these rights are necessities of life (sufficient food, water, clothing, and shelter) and basic health and social services. Professionals can gain an awareness of the structural conditions their clients are facing by adopting a human rights approach and move from a need to rights approach in response (Lundy, 2011). Primary assumptions about human rights are important in making decisions concerning how to educate, protect and care for children, and how to resolve conflicts among individuals. Knowledge about the essence and limit of human rights are key theoretical resources for human service workers (Connolly & Ward, 2008). A document that contains the human rights is the…show more content…
Social justice was originally regarded as a substitute to charity. However, after growth and establishment of the welfare state, it was viewed as a means to address social inequity structures, although not a successful means to achieve social justice (Lundy, 2011). Gary Craig, a professor of social justice, views social justice as a basis of political objectives, achieved through social, economic, environmental, and political policies, based on an approval of difference and diversity (Craig, 2002). There are three main ideas of social justice. The first is a legal justice concept, which focuses on the concern of what a person owes to society. The second is the concept of commutative justice, which is related to interpersonal equity and is about what people owe to each other. And the third concept is of distributive justice, which concentrates on what a person is owed by society. The third idea is most related to human services practice as it deals with the distribution of basic resources, such as health care, housing and food (Chenoweth & McAuliffe,…show more content…
Counsellors aim for all people to have equal opportunities to have access to resources and participate in laws and policies that would affect them thus leading to a society that has harmony between the needs of all (Crethar, Rivera, & Nash 2008). In the counselling field, social justice includes empowerment of individuals and family system to better client needs and advocate with and on their behalf regarding inequities and injustices they experience (Crethar & Winterowd,

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