Mänskliga rättigheter och socialt arbete inom offentlig förvaltning : En intervjustudie med tjänstepersoner inom socialtjänsten

Sammanfattning: The Swedish government has in national action plans and development cooperation pointed out the importance of relizing human rights at the municipal level. One of the municipality`s areas of responsibility is to attain a social service based on principals of democracy and solidarity. In addition, the social worker must apply national legislation, international human rights commitments and a user- or client perspective. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the importance of employees in the realization of human rights in the activities of social services. The study is based on interviews with employees in the social services. The results of the study are analyzed on the basis of theories regarding democracy, law enforcement and social work. The results show that the social workers in the exercise of authority need to apply different perspectives that are sometimes contradictory. The result indicates that the power to realize human rights in the social services is divided between structural factors and factors that have to do with the individual social worker.