Messy Ethics in Human Rights Work - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0774868511 ISBN 13: 9780774868518

Publisher: UBC Press, 2023

Synopsis

Human rights work takes place everywhere, every day, and in every way, but good intentions don’t always bring the intended results.

Messy Ethics in Human Rights Work invites readers into a series of overlapping conversations, as activists, researchers, and others consider the complex messiness of ethics in practice and the implications for human rights work in academia and beyond. Although formal ethics guidelines can be useful, their focus on seeing the “messiness” as a problem rather than reality often misses the point. Human rights work entails intricate relationships of social, political, and economic power and responsibility that emerge only in the process of doing the work itself.

Contributors share their ethical dilemmas: How did they evaluate a situation and the options to resolve it? Where did or didn’t they seek guidance? What would they do differently next time? This thoughtful work proposes that personal reflection and sometimes uncomfortable discussions are essential components of critical human rights practice.

About this title

About the Author

Shayna Plaut is the director for research at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. She is also a research manager at the Global Reporting Centre. Shayna has served as a consultant for the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and for Amnesty International and has been published in a variety of academic journals. Neil Bilotta is a clinical assistant professor of social work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research explores social inclusion and culturally responsive ethics of social work. Lara Rosenoff Gauvin is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Manitoba and a research associate with the university’s Centre for Human Rights Research. Christina Clark-Kazak is a professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, a past editor-in-chief of Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees, and past president of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration. Maritza Felices-Luna is an associate professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa and co-editor of Demarginalizing Voices: Commitment, Emotion and Action in Qualitative Research.

Edition details

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0774868511
• ISBN 13: 9780774868518
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280
• Editor: Plaut Shayna, Bilotta Neil, Rosenoff Gauvin Lara, Clark-Kazak Christina, Felices-Luna Maritza