A Human Rights-Based Approach to Justice in Social Work Practice - Paperbackby Shirley Gatenio Gabel (Author) At its founding, social workers were human rights defenders who advocated for societal reforms and fought against social exclusion and discriminatory practices that violated human rights. As social work grew and developed professional skill sets, values, and ethics, the focus turned toward professionalizing social work by creating theories and interventions to guide social work practice, and justice was no longer the