Economic Human Rights for Social Workers Presenter PlaceDate A Project of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign University of the PoorSchool of Social Work & Social Transformation

If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” Aboriginal Activists, 1970

Agenda What are Economic Human Rights? Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign Guiding Principles for Economic Human Rights Practice Get Involved/Get more information

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Guarantees the economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights of all people. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, Translated to two covenants: –The first covenant deals with civil and political rights (CCPR). –The second covenant deals with economic, social, and cultural rights (CESCR).

Economic Human Rights

Article 23 (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

What this means: We all have the right to a job of our choice that is safe, pays well enough to live, and does not infringe on our civil rights. Specific violations include: –Minimum wage jobs that deny workers a living wage and health care. –Injuries and deaths resulting from unsafe or unhealthy working conditions. –Work requirements under welfare reform that force recipients to take any job offered. –Being fired or demoted for trying to form a union or for complaining about working conditions.

Economic Human Rights Article 25 (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

What this means: We all have the right to safe and decent housing, health care, clothing, and food. We all have the right to assistance if these basic needs are not met. Specific violations include: –Being forced to stay in a homeless shelter in order to qualify for housing assistance. –Injury or death resulting from lack of heat or proper ventilation. –Injury or death resulting from lack of medical care. –Welfare reform policies which end the guarantee of assistance in times of unemployment.

Economic Human Rights Article 26 (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

What this means: We all have the right to education. Elementary education must be free, and all other education should be equally available to us all on the basis of merit, not income. Specific violations include: –Welfare recipients being forced to leave school, job training, language classes, or GED classes. –University costs and financial aid cuts burdening students with debt or making higher education inaccessible for financial reasons. –Children missing school because of poverty or homelessness.

“Tell this to the world...” OUTRIDERS “go before and announce the coming of others.” Excerpts from the documentary film by Skylight Pictures

PPEHRC Nationally recognized campaign organized by poor people and their allies. Comprised of a growing number of grassroots organizations, community groups, and other organizations committed to ending poverty in the United States and ensuring economic human rights for all people.

PPEHRC Mission Statement: The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign is committed to uniting the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty. We work to accomplish this through advancing economic human rights as named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as the rights to food, housing, health, education, communication and a living wage job.

PPEHRC Goal: End Poverty Overall Strategy: Unity of the Poor Organizing andEducational Arms Includes Social Work and Social Transformation

What does this mean to us? Reframing the dialogue on poverty and related conditions eliminates the barriers of shame and blame. “Empathic relationships” are grounded in common cause, not technique. Upholding economic human rights furthers effective and ethical practice. Guarantees the necessary tools and resources to meet basic needs of all people. Translation of economic human rights into laws and policies will allow us to do our jobs.

Economic Human Rights Practice: Guiding Principles Human rights are indivisible; everyone has economic human rights.

Economic Human Rights Practice: Guiding Principles We must examine and challenge the assumptions about the poor behind our work and the policies of our agencies and government.

Economic Human Rights Practice: Guiding Principles There are narratives of people’s lives that are not being told in the media; they must be told and legitimized.

Economic Human Rights Practice: Guiding Principles There is power in collectivity –to break isolation –to provide support –to create change

Economic Human Rights Practice: Guiding Principles Individual problems are social and political problems: –The personal is political; –There is no divide between clinical social work and political or “macro” social work.

Economic Human Rights Practice: Guiding Principles Ending poverty is possible and essential for our survival.

Get Involved! Encourage people to tell their stories and break the silence of poverty. Collect documentation of economic human rights violations. Organize a Truth Commission. Connect or form a PPEHRC member organization in your community. Create an economic human rights committee in your community.

For more information Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign Social Workers in the Movement to End Poverty contact discussion board

Upcoming Events March for Our Lives at The RNC2008 Minneapolis, MN August-September 2008

Some possibilities... Truth Commissions see “Guide to Documenting Human Rights Violations” and Reports and links to the videos of the National Truth Commission, 2006 at _____________________ A Legislative Resolution and Hearings “ To Study Integrating Economic Human Rights into the Laws and Policies of [Your State]”