Exploring human rights, reproductive justice, and environmental justice amongst students: ideas and action

Social beliefs and values regarding human rights shape practice and policy related to social injustice. Reproductive and environmental justice are among some of the pressing issues facing many people around the globe. Social work, with its focus on social justice, will need practitioners who are well educated and trained in these areas to both help clients and advocate for social change. In this exploratory study, students were surveyed about their knowledge of and attitude toward human rights, reproductive justice, and environmental justice. Results indicated that higher endorsement of human rights, previous human rights’ coursework, and a greater importance of religious beliefs explained 61% of the variance in support of reproductive justice. These results may inform curriculum development efforts, which could employ a human rights framework to explore social justice issues across many domains, including reproductive and environmental justice.