CARE09004 2022 Human Rights, Social Policy and Law

The aim of this module is to explore the role of social policy and human rights in effecting positive social change by examining in particular the relationship between the legal system and contexts in which social inequalities are generated. The module will focus on how human rights and social policy operate at a national and European level for those advocating for social justice.

Students may assess a number of policy areas including: poverty, homelessness, healthcare, education, disability, race, social exclusion, unemployment and mental health. This will enable the student to understand better social policy formulation, political participation and how to advocate for social justice and human rights.

The second edition of this leading international text introduces students to the concepts and methods of social policy.

Fully updated to cover topics such as climate change, trade and business activities, while retaining the original style and structure.

This second edition of a highly successful textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to social policy in Ireland addressing a range of social policy topics of growing importance in contemporary Irish society including issues related to children, service users and groups, migration, ethnicity, sexuality and climate change.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- CONTENTS -- PART I INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW -- CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Anger, Hope, and the Belief You Can Make a Difference -- CHAPTER 2 Response to the Critics: How to Evaluate the Legitimacy and Effectiveness of Human Rights -- PART II THE LEGITIMACY OF HUMAN RIGHTS: DIVERSE STRUGGLES -- CHAPTER 3 The Diverse Political Origins of Human Rights -- CHAPTER 4 The Struggles for Human Rights during the Cold War -- PART III THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAWS, INSTITUTIONS, AND MOVEMENTS -- CHAPTER 5 Why Is It So Hard to Measure the Effectiveness of Human Rights Law and Activism? -- CHAPTER 6 What Does and Doesn't Work to Promote Human Rights? -- PART IV MAKING HUMAN RIGHTS WORK IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY -- CHAPTER 7 Conclusions: Evidence for Hope without Complacency -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Suggestions for Further Reading -- Index

"More than a decade ago, Dublin University Press published a collection of William Kingston's writings on Irish topics. Their main concerns were issues such as the harmful effects of the unusual Irish voting system and the poor performance of the country's bureaucracy. It can fairly be claimed for one of them ("The Lemmings of Democracy") that it showed well in advance why and how Ireland would be particularly hard hit by the financial crisis of 2009. This new and expanded edition puts more emphasis on innovation and history. One of them, "Understanding Britain's 'Brexit' Parliament," provides an essential clue to the problems with the Irish voting system identified earlier.The History group contains an account of the scarcely known but crucial part Ireland played in two scientific revolutions. It also reveals how the law of Limited Liability on which every Corporation in the world depends, had its origin in Dublin's eighteenth-century independent Parliament"--

Modern society is beset by a vast range of problems such as poverty, homelessness and terrorism that cause immense suffering for a significant number of people. These social problems both reflect and contribute to wider inequalities; consequently, in order to develop a true understanding of them, we must consider the social injustices with which they are inextricably linked. In this ground-breaking text, Neil Thompson turns his attention to the range of complex issues relating to social problems and social justice, and the relationship between them. With the help of engaging features that have become synonymous with his books, Thompson provides a clear exploration of some key social problems currently challenging us, analysis of the connection between social problems and social justice, and a review of how social policy initiatives to tackle these issues have fared to date. Innovative and absorbing, Social Problems and Social Justice is essential reading for students and practitioners across a wide range of social science disciplines and the social professions.

Underpinned by the idea of the right to a 'basic minimum', welfare states are a major feature of many societies. However, the lived experiences of persons seeking and receiving welfare payments can often be overlooked. This book seeks to remedy this omission by honouring lived experience as valuable, insightful and necessary. It draws on qualitative interviews with 19 people receiving various working age welfare payments in Ireland to explore stigma, social reciprocity and the notions of the deserving and undeserving poor, and to analyse welfare conditionality in the Irish context. Breaking new ground, this book offers original research findings which contest and inform policy both within Ireland and beyond.

Hearne contextualises the Irish housing crisis within its broader global context and examines its origins in terms of the extension of neoliberalism, marketisation and financialisation in housing. Using real voices and stories, he shows how the crisis is having profound impacts on equality, wellbeing and health.

Provides a clear overview of mental health, illness, and well-being in Ireland, with a guide to common mental illnesses, their symptoms, and treatments.

Provides a more complete account of the human rights project that factors in the contribution of cosmopolitan Catholicism.

Michael Drew's book is a much-needed analysis of the overlooked crisis of food poverty and insecurity in Ireland. It sets out the scale, causes and effects of the problem, reviews the social policies and charity and community responses that have accompanied it, and draws on international comparisons to suggest responses to the emergency.

Human Rights, now in its fourth edition, is an introductory text that is both innovative and challenging. Its unique interdisciplinary approach invites students to think imaginatively and rigorously about one of the most important and influential political concepts of our time. Tracing the history of the concept, the book shows that there are fundamental tensions between legal, philosophical and social-scientific approaches to human rights. This analysis throws light on some of the most controversial issues in the field: What are the causes of human rights-violations? Is the idea of universal human rights consistent with respect for cultural difference? Are we living in a post human rights world? Thoroughly revised and updated, the new edition engages with recent developments, including the Trump and Biden presidencies, colonial legacies, neoliberalism, conflict in Syria, Yemen and Myanmar, the Covid-19 pandemic, new technologies, and the supposed crisis of liberal democracy. Widely admired and assigned for its clarity and comprehensiveness, this book remains a go-to text for students in the social sciences, as well as students of human-rights law who want an introduction to the non-legal aspects of their subject.

This book provides a moral assessment of the heart of the modern human rights enterprise: the system of international legal human rights. Any attempt to achieve a moral assessment of that enterprise must first evaluate the system of international legal human rights, which includes both legal norms and the institutions that create, interpret, and implement them.

This important new book explores the issues underlying current and longstanding concerns over the 'creeping competences' of the European Union. A fundamental question since the early origins of the European Union in the functionally limited economic, coal and steel and atomic energies communities of the 1950s has been the legitimate scope and limits of its powers of action, and the relationship between these powers and those of its component Member States. This issue, which centers on the legitimacy of different levels and fora of government within a complex and growing economic and political entity, has been brought to prominence again by the constitutional agenda set by the European Council at Nice. Specifically, it has been highlighted by the call for a more precise delimitation of competences between the EU and the Member States.