Teaching Human Rights from a Capacity Building Perspective
Capacity Building by definition is concerned with the empowerment/strengths model of social work practice and social development. The proposed workshop will apply Capacity Building to all fields of social work, from casework to policy development and community building. The following principles will be incorporated:
1) The workshop will be based on the concept of development education, a global world view that addresses the underlying, intertwined social conditions that lead to violations of human rights.
2) Within an interactive format, the panel will teach participants how to apply the strengths perspective to the problems of people from a human rights perspective. Assessment of strengths will include the individual, family and community.
3) Participants will have the opportunity to practice the Train the Trainers model in which they learn how to teach people in the community how to acquire and share knowledge, skills and resources that make it possible for them to pursue their aspirations realistically.
4) So as to ensure relevance, the public health populations-at-risk concept of social epidemiology will be applied in which participants learn to determine who is most likely to experience a given problem, and in what population the problem is increasing most rapidly.
5) A human rights perspective requires gender-mainstreaming, a UN principle of human development designed to make certain the appropriate assessment of problems, policies, research and practice methods from a male and female gender-specific point of view.