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On Tuesday, October 28, Alicia Dibbets will defend her dissertation entitled “Social Workers as Local Human Rights Actors – ‘You always have to deal with us’ ”.

The realisation of human rights depends on a diverse array of actors. Due to their position as public service professionals working in close proximity with people in vulnerable situations, social workers can also be regarded as human rights actors. Their possible role becomes imperative when they are working in a law and policy context that is not fully consistent with human rights. The ways in which social workers respond to such law and policy can determine whether their client’s human rights are respected or undermined, and subsequently, whether the social care system operates in line with human rights.

In many Western European countries human rights roles of social workers take shape in a welfare system with decreasing or diminished access to social care. Within these social care systems, social workers are often given a role in determining which clients are eligible for what type of social care. The central research question of this dissertation is therefore: How can social workers affect human rights realisation through the ways in which they interact with law and policy on access to social care?

By studying social workers as human rights actors from different theoretical perspectives the dissertation aims to contribute to a more socio-legal understanding of human rights realisation that goes beyond state-centrism. It thus serves as an example on how socio-legal human rights research can be used to gain more insight into the complex mechanisms that make up human rights realisation in practice.