Human Rights and Social Justice
Local Authority

Perspectives

Empowerment

Pursuit of Social Justice

Ethical & Practice Challenges

Power
Relevant Housing Acts
 Housing Act 1919 & Housing Act 1966
 Made provision for housing of the elderly and homeless
 Provision for Central Government subsidy to local authorities for
construction of housing & high-rise flat complexes
1988 – Housing Act, benchmark in housing legislation. This Act covered all
Homeless People, not just those made homeless by L.A. actions. It
empowered the local authority to provide for the homeless, members of the
Traveller community, extended powers of the L.A to assist non-profit housing
associations & voluntary organizations involved in the provision of housing
 1998 Housing Act (Traveller Accommodation)
Local Authorities in Transition
 Welfare Role of the Local Authorities – began late 30s
 Public Service Policy – 1948 – Dublin Corporation employed first
Welfare Officer, by 1950 two Welfare Officers employed
 1980s – including senior social workers, youth & community
workers, chief welfare officer/head of social work – 32 welfare
officers/social workers
 Dual Role: The Welfare Officers provided a social work
intervention service to the Corporation Tenants and helped to keep
the Councillors in touch with their electors, facilitating negative &
positive feedback concerning policy developed & instituted at city
council level.

1970 – Mid 80s – changes in how L.A. funded – key
developments that had implications for Social Inclusion as a
function of Local Government

1971 – Eastern Health Board & other Health Boards set up.
Public Health Function removed from the local authorities.
This severed the connection between the 17th century Poor
Law administration & the Local Authority

1980s – 1992 Emergence of groups solely dependent on public
housing – lone parents & acutely homeless. This group also
included the victims of domestic violence rendered ‘homeless’
into women’s refuges.
Areas of Policy Input & Influence

Priority Scheme for housing list applicants

Evictions - Advocacy – Confidentiality – Records

Tenancy Transfers

Estate Management & Neighbour Mediation

Homeless

Diversity – Promoting Racial Equality ‘Many Peoples –
One City’ – Awareness Training

Travellers Rights

Older Persons
Human Rights, Social Justice and Anti-oppressive
Practice in Social Work
Human rights refer to basic international accepted standards of absolute liberties,
freedoms and protections to which all peoples are entitled by virtue of their
humanity (United Nations, 1948; 1993). However, human rights declarations and
charters form only part of a discourse of human rights that is constantly
being constructed, challenged and re-constructed (Ife, 2008: 151).
While there is an elaborate literature on human rights beyond the traditional
legal formulations (see Ife, 2008; Wronka, 2008) for our purposes we accept Ife’s
(2008: 152) argument that for social workers, human rights must be grounded in
practice and “it is the relationship between the discursive construction of
human rights and the practice of human rights that is critical”.
Extract from UCD School of Applied Social Science Working Papers Series 2013, McCarthy & Keenan
Human Rights and Social Justice:
Challenges for Social Workers in Working with Men who have Perpetrated Sexual Crime
References & Bibliography
 Local Government in Ireland Inside Out eds. Callanan & Keogan
IPA 2003 – Madden ‘Social Inclusion & Local Government’ ch.23
 ‘‘Reclaiming Social Work for Equality’ Niall Crowley, IASW
Journal, 2010 Social Work in an Unequal Society (archives)
 ‘Social Work & Human Rights’ Elis Envall, IASW Winter 1993
Irish Social Worker vol.11:5.
 ‘’Defining Social Work for the 21st Century: The International
Federation of Social Workers’ Revised Definition of Social
Work’ Isadora Hare, International Social Work 2004; 47:407
 CORU Code of Professional Conduct & Ethics for Social
Workers, 2011
 IASW Code of Ethics 2009
 ‘Local Authorities are an Integral Part of the System of
Representative Government’ Madden, M.Soc.Sc (Social Work)
1999.