The role of social services in shelters promoting the human rights of women exposed to domestic violence

Abstract

Globally widespread violence against women of all classes appears to be the norm. This situation is a clear and specific example of the violation of their basic human rights. In South Africa, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 as well as South Africa’s international commitments and obligations to end violence against women and children, catalysed the adoption of the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998. It is, however, trite that the enactment of legislation is not always the panacea to all social ills and in this case, domestic violence continues as a social phenomenon in South Africa society, despite the introduction of law and policy to curb its reach and subsequent effect on, particularly women. Research supports the contention that the prevalence of domestic violence is due to an interplay between different factors such as individual, community, economic, cultural and religious factors occurring at different levels in the society. This intersection of causality results in a societal phenomenon that is difficult to control and reduce. Due to the rise in occurrence and consequences of domestic violence, both the United Nations and the World Health Organisation have declared violence against women as a violation of human rights. Although the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights has championed itself as a foundation and powerful tool designed to fight all forms of oppression and ensure human dignity, there has always been a constant struggle to ensure that all human rights (civil, political, economic, social, and cultural) are equally guaranteed to women. The human rights approach was thus used to explore the role of social services in the promotion of human rights for women exposed to domestic violence. This approach was useful because the White Paper for Social Welfare requires the inclusion of a rights-based approach in the delivery of social services. This qualitative research was exploratory and descriptive. The research was applied, and a collective case study was used as a research design. Nonprobability sampling was used to select a sample, and purposive sampling was followed. A total number of 12 participants were interviewed via one-to-one semistructured interviews. Empirical findings proved that the promotion of human rights through social services is taking place in shelters for women exposed to domestic violence. Much of this, however, results from the principles and values of the social work profession and not from the practice of human rights in and of its own right. Thus, the full comprehension and implementation of a human rights approach remain a challenge at some shelters. The researcher ultimately recommends that a human rights approach should be adopted as a framework for guiding social services in this sector. A human rights culture should gain popularity and not only be assimilated through its incorporation within the values and principles of the social work profession. It should instead be an approach that exists in and of its own right; although admittedly, it cannot be divorced from the values and principles of the social work profession. Shelters should also adopt a feminist approach to dealing robustly with societal factors that lead to violence against women.