Carers' Human Rights: Are They Invisible?

Submitted by tonyplant on August 1, 2006 - 10:06.

Carers UK is asking whether carers have human rights.  Carers UK report that

Carers, like everyone else in the UK, are entitled to rely on the protection of the Human Rights Act 1998, which should ensure that public bodies take account of their human rights when they provide services. Public services play a critical role in guaranteeing carers' human rights. They can ensure that carers have the support they need to maintain a normal life. The report we are publishing today shows that reality falls a long way short of this ideal.

 

Many carers are pushed to the brink of physical and mental collapse because of the lack of support they receive...

Why do carers seem to be the only group of people who are automatically exempt from the restrictions of the working time directive? Why are carers expected to work under conditions that are assessed as too much of a health and safety hazard for trained professionals? The Guardian offers several grim stories of overworked and exhausted carers that will be only too familiar to many people. In the light of today's news about tightening of eligibility criteria for care for elderly or disabled people, it seems as if relief will not arrive any time in the near future.

 

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Language as a conceptual system

Submitted by suleelkatip on July 22, 2006 - 15:17.

Continued – Unfortunately I could not continue with my blog because of a problem which seems curiously not to be culture but gender specific:  stalking.

The Legal Encyclopaedia defines ‘stalking’ as follows: Criminal activity consisting of the repeated following and harassing of another person. Stalking is a distinctive form of criminal activity composed of a series of actions that taken individually might constitute legal behaviour. For example, sending flowers, writing love notes, and waiting for someone outside her place of work are actions that, on their own, are not criminal. When these actions are coupled with an intent to instil fear or injury, however, they may constitute a pattern of behaviour that is illegal. Though anti-stalking laws are gender neutral, most stalkers are men and most victims are women. http://www.answers.com/stalking&r=67 

A colleague is involved in domestic violence related work and she asked me whether there is a word for ‘stalking’ in Turkish.  There does not seem be such a word in Turkish.

read more | add new comment | women and children | stalking | laws | human rights | domestic violence | concepts

Do Carers Have Human Rights?

Submitted by tonyplant on March 16, 2006 - 17:50.

Carers UK is asking whether carers have human rights.  Carers UK report that

Carers, like everyone else in the UK, are entitled to rely on the protection of the Human Rights Act 1998, which should ensure that public bodies take account of their human rights when they provide services. Public services play a critical role in guaranteeing carers' human rights. They can ensure that carers have the support they need to maintain a normal life. The report we are publishing today shows that reality falls a long way short of this ideal.

 

Many carers are pushed to the brink of physical and mental collapse because of the lack of support they receive...

Why do carers seem to be the only group of people who are automatically exempt from the restrictions of the working time directive? Why are carers expected to work under conditions that are assessed as too much of a health and safety hazard for trained professionals? The Guardian offers several grim stories of overworked and exhausted carers that will be only too familiar to many people. In the light of today's news about tightening of eligibility criteria for care for elderly or disabled people, it seems as if relief will not arrive any time in the near future.

 

read more | add new comment | social care | human rights | carers | caregivers