Human rights and rehabilitation outcomes

Purpose. The aim of this article is to introduce rehabilitation professionals to the rapidly growing literature on human rights particularly as it relates to health and rehabilitation. The article aims to stimulate further discussion and debate concerning the place of human rights in rehabilitation practice.

Method. Some important milestones in the recent history of the human rights movement are briefly outlined, and some important terms in the rights literature are explained. The Ward and Birgden model of the structure of human rights is then described as an example of a rights perspective that might have particular relevance for health and social services and rehabilitation.

Results. A rehabilitation case study is presented as an example of how the Ward and Birgden model could have practical relevance when deciding on the most important outcomes for an individual in rehabilitation.

Conclusion. Human rights are playing an increasing role in the struggle to improve health and healthcare globally. They also have important implications for rehabilitation practitioners and researchers and should form the core of any ethical framework for rehabilitation. It might even be argued that rights and dignity are themselves valued outcomes for rehabilitation.

Human rights and dignity in offender rehabilitation

The concept of human rights is a moral (and legal) one that that is intended to safeguard provision of the social, economic, environmental, and psychological goods necessary for a dignified human life. Over the last 3 years, several papers on the implications of rights-based thinking for the assessment and treatment of offenders have appeared. In this paper, I draw from this work—in particular, the conceptual model developed by Ward and Birgden (2007)—and examine its practice recommendations and implications. First, I analyze the concept of dignity and its role in human rights thinking. Then the Ward and Birgden model of human rights is outlined and ethically justified. Finally, I discuss some of the major assessment and treatment consequences of this human rights approach.

Human rights and forensic psychology

Objectives. Human rights serve to orientate practitioners to the necessary conditions for a minimally worthwhile life for service users, the prerequisites for a life of dignity and a chance at happiness, and the opportunity to incorporate into their life plans cherished values and goals. In this introduction to the special section paper, I discuss the basic concept of human rights and outline their relevance for clinical practice with offenders.

Method. I explore the core values associated with human rights and suggest that one of their primary functions is to protect the internal and external conditions of individuals' agency and their pursuit of better lives.

Conclusion. I briefly outline the three articles comprising this special section of LCP on human rights that address issues of risk, therapeutic jurisprudence, and the rights of detained persons.

Dignity and human rights in correctional practice

Interventions with offenders have a normative layer as well as a scientific basis and therefore it is not possible to quarantine ethical questions from discussions of best practice. My aim in this paper is to provide an expanded ethical canvass from which to approach correctional practice with offenders. The cornerstone of this broader ethical perspective will be the concept of human dignity and its protection by human rights norms and theories. I also explore the relationship between responses to crime and offender rehabilitation based on an enriched theory of punishment that is sensitive to offenders’ moral equality and their attendant rights.

A human rights-based practice framework for sexual offenders

Human rights create a protective zone around people and allow them the opportunity to further their own valued personal projects without interference from others. In our view, the emphasis on community rights and protection may, paradoxically, reduce the effectiveness of sex offender rehabilitation by ignoring or failing to ensure that offenders' core human interests are met. In this paper we consider how rights-based values and ideas can be integrated into therapeutic work with sex offenders in a way that safeguards the interests of offenders and the community. To this end we develop a rights-based normative framework (the Offender Practice Framework: OPF) that is orientated around the three strands of justice and accountability, offender needs and risk, and the utilization of empirically supported interventions and strength-based approaches. We examine the utility of this framework for the different phases of sex offender practice.

Restorative justice and the human rights of offenders : convergences and divergences

Restorative justice has gained significant momentum as a justice reform movement within the past three decades, and it is estimated that up to one hundred countries worldwide utilize restorative justice practices. Although claims about the role of restorative justice in protecting human rights are repeatedly made in the restorative justice literature, they are seldom supported by empirical evidence or a thorough analysis of human rights and their justification. In this paper, we discuss how the assumptions underpinning restorative justice practices impact on offenders' human rights, and their points of convergence and divergence. We argue that while these assumptions can protect certain offender rights, they may violate others. We finish with some suggestions about how to reconcile the tensions between human rights and restorative justice, focusing in particular on the relationship between community needs and individual well-being.

Putting human rights into practice with people with an intellectual disability

Human rights create a protective zone around persons and allow them the opportunity to further their own valued personal projects without interference from others. In this paper we apply the concept of human rights to people with an intellectual disability. First we briefly analyze the concept of human rights, their structure, and justification. Second, we directly apply our model of human rights to persons with an intellectual disability and argue that it has the resources to bridge the perceived gap between rights and needs and to offer practitioners ethically defensible practice guidance. We supplement this abstract analysis with a case example. Finally we conclude with some reflections on the future of a human rights viewpoint in the arena of intellectual disability.

Human rights performance reporting : a study of corporations within Australian financial sector

This paper investigates the human rights performance reporting practices of the top 50 Australian financial service companies listed in the Australian Stock Exchange. All corporate reporting media, including annual reports, Social Responsibility Reports (CSR) and company websites, were reviewed to document their disclosure practices for the current period (2009/2010). In considering a number of international voluntary guidelines on human rights, a content analysis instrument containing 80 specific human rights themes, under 10 general categories, was developed to examine corporate reporting media. The results remain intensely unimpressive. The number of companies that disclosed human rights items is extremely low; the majority of the items were not disclosed by any of the companies under investigation. However, compared to CSR reports and company websites, annual reports were the preferable media used to disclose human rights issues. The result indicates how ineffective the voluntary global guidelines are in ensuring that Australian financial corporations report on their human rights performances.