38 ● Anita Gibbs and Kate van Heugten
health, welfare, and education services—can potentially violate the rights of
people and that they should therefore seek to transform these institutions at
all levels. Language might also need to be accordingly transformed. As an
example, Ife (2012) noted that terms such as engagement and strategy, which
are often used in social work, are military terms, and these might be replaced
by alternative terminology that emphasizes the importance of cooperative
conversations. Ife also argued that policies that place barriers that physically
prevent a person’s full participation in employment—for example, lack of
legislation requiring full access for people with physical disabilities—would
need to be replaced by policies that promote genuine access and participation
(Ife 2012).
Rights-oriented treaties—such as the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—also influence social work activity toward
specific groups of people, viewing these groups as having the right to voice
and agency and the right to full participation in decision making in their
own lives (Ife 2012). With respect to indigenous peoples, returning rightful
control and autonomy has been a key strategy of the 1990s and 2000s. Anti-
colonialist practice (Ife 2012) requires respect for indigenous people’s rights
to develop and use their own indigenous models and frameworks in assisting
their own people (see chapter 6 for a discussion on the importance of bicultural
competence in practice).
From a rights-based framework, Aleena and her family would have rights to
be kept safe, fed, and housed. Human service professionals would advocate for
better housing in a safer area, as well as provision of adequate material resources
and health services, as the bare minimum to enable Aleena’s well-being. These
professionals would encourage Aleena and her children to voice their needs
and concerns and to participate fully in decisions affecting them. A worker
might also assist Aleena in accessing and participating in quality childcare and
preschool education for her children. This might mean petitioning govern-
ment agencies and charities to provide transport for Aleena and her children
to places where such services are provided. Human service professionals would
be careful in their use of language in their relationship with Aleena, avoiding
labels and disempowering terms that suggest she is neglectful, welfare “depen-
dent,” or mentally “unstable.” Empowerment and advocacy would be the main
strategies of action utilized by human service professionals in this case.
Indigenous FrameworksIn many places where indigenous peoples have been colonized by other
nations, the indigenous peoples have suffered crippling social, political, economic,