Promoting a Just Society and Preventing Human Rights Violations

Following up their earlier chapter, and with particular reference to the inheritance of the Nazis and the Nuremberg trials, Fran Gale and Michael Dudley ponder challenges in promoting social goodness and preventing human rights violations. They interrogate professional ethics about the social responsibilities of helping professionals, the place of social justice within mental health, and ask ethical questions about medical technology with particular reference to the ‘new eugenics’. For nations and communities undertaking postgenocide interventions, the struggle for remembrance and justice, the attractions and elusiveness of forgiveness, and the mixed results attending reconciliation are surveyed with reference to individual and community mental health – such as the benefits of testifying at a TRC, or how to support witnesses. What of the needs of children in conflict zones, the rearing of children to prevent or halt violence? Warning systems that prevent genocide and the question of development programmes that promote social goodness are also discussed. The necessity to renew democracy should not be underestimated. Lastly they contemplate the role of socially engaged helping professionals, the mandate in international standards for such engagement, and their contribution to strengthening of civil society.