1Final Report:
Rights-based Social Work Practice in SouthEastern Europe
August 10, 2020
Please accept this FINAL report from the “Rights-based Social Work Practice in SouthEastern
Europe” whose membership is made up of the following scholars:
ScholarCity

Country

Language

Vjollca
University ofKrasniqi
Pristina
Elona Dhembo University ofTiranaErika Bejko
University ofTiranaSanela Šadić
University ofSarajevo
Sanela Bašić
University ofSarajevo
Nino Žganec
University ofZagrebMarina Milić
University ofBabić
Zagreb

Pristina

KosovoAlbanian

TiranaAlbania

Albanian

TiranaAlbania

Albanian

Sarajevo

BosnianZagreb

Bosnia andHerzegovina
Bosnia andHerzegovina
Croatia

ZagrebCroatia

Croatian

Gordana BerćZagrebCroatia

CroatianAthensUSA

EnglishJaneMcPherson

University

University ofZagreb
University ofGeorgia

Sarajevo

Bosnian
Croatian

We were funded with the following mission:
The over-arching purpose of A Transnational Collaborative Research on Rights-based Social
Work Practice in Southeastern Europe is to promote the integration of rights-based ideals andmethods into social work (both in education and practice) in selected Southeastern European
countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo. This research project engages
on the intersection between human rights and social work and seeks to promote rights-based
practices by measuring social workers’ attitudes on four dimensions: 1) human rights
engagement in social work; 2) human rights exposure in social work, 3) human rights lens insocial work, and 4) human rights methods in social work.
An account of all the activities undertaken to that date:Since being funded in 2018, we have accomplished the following activities:

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February 2018: We held a methodology conference over Skype that was organized byDr. Jane McPherson. All data collected in the US studies was shared with all partners.
Partners discussed scale translations/adaptations and made plans to sharemethodology.

•July 2018. Nino Zganec & Gordana Berc (Croatia); Elona Dhembo & Erika Bejko (Albania);
and Jane McPherson (USA) met at IASSW in Dublin, Ireland to discuss the project plan.

•2018: The rights-based scales—Human Rights Exposure in Social Work (HRXSW;
McPherson & Abell, 2012); Human Rights Engagement in Social Work (HRESW;
McPherson & Abell, 2012); Human Rights Lens in Social Work (HRLSW; McPherson,
2015; McPherson, Siebert, & Siebert, 2017); and Human Rights Methods in Social Work(HRMSW; McPherson & Abell, 2019) were translated and adapted for use in Kosovo,Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Albania. Surveys were developed using the scales
in all 4 participating countries.

•January 2019. Our consortium received $4900 from The Dennis A. and Julia M. Watkins
Foundation, Inc. to support our ongoing partnerships. Specifically, this grant provided
travel funding for all of us to meet in Madrid (EASSW annual conference) in order todisseminate our research and to nurture our further collaborations.

•February 2019. We submitted a book proposal to EASSW/Springer for Human Rights inthis Age of Uncertainty: Social Work Approaches and Practices from Southeast Europe(co-edited by Vjollca Krasniqi and Jane McPherson). This book emerged from thiscollaboration, will include scholarship rooted in this project, and also expands ourcollaboration to include Bulgaria and Slovenia. This is an outcome of the grant that was
not originally imagined, but that would not have happened without this IASSW support.

•April 2019. Human Rights in this Age of Uncertainty: Social Work Approaches andPractices from Southeast Europe (co-edited by Vjollca Krasniqi and Jane McPherson) wasprovisionally accepted for publication by EASSW/Springer. Manuscript due 2021.

•June 2019, our Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Albania teams allparticipated in a joint symposium along with Jane McPherson at the EASSW conferencein Madrid. Preliminary results from Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia werepresented. Our symposium, Integrating Human Rights into Social Work Education andPractice, was well attended and well received.

•June 2019: Consortium planning meeting in Madrid.

•2019: Data has been collected and analysis is under way in Kosovo, Bosnia andHerzegovina, and Croatia. Data collection begins in Albania.

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April 2020: Two abstracts were accepted for presentation at the European Conference
on Social Work Research in Bucharest, Romania. Unfortunately, the conference wascancelled due to Covid-19. The accepted abstracts were:o “Measuring rights-based social work practice in Bosnia and Hercegovina” by JaneMcPherson, Sanela Šadić, Sanela Bašić, & Tatiana Villarreal-Otálora
o “Human rights approaches in social work practice in Kosovo” by Vjollca Krasniqi
Jane McPherson, & Tatiana Villarreal-Otálora

•April 2020: The first article from the collaboration was published: "Rights-based social
work in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Validating tools for education and practice," by Šadić,McPherson, Villarreal-Otálora, and Bašić in International Social Work:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0020872820912310?journalCode=iswb
The article has already been cited 1 time.

•July 2020: Consortium planning meeting was anticipated at the SWESD Conference inRimini, Italy. Canceled due to Covid-19.

•August 2020: Final contract signed for the upcoming book, Human Rights in this Age ofUncertainty: Social Work Approaches and Practices from Southeast Europe (co-edited byVjollca Krasniqi and Jane McPherson), to be published in the “European Social Work
Education and Practice series” by Springer. Manuscript is due November 2021. Book isanticipated for 2022.
August 2020: The manuscript "Are We Putting Human Rights into Social Work Practice inKosovo?" will be submitted by Krasniqi, McPherson, and Villarreal-Otálora to the British
Journal of Social Work or International Social Work.

••August 2020: More manuscripts are in progress (a second manuscript on Bosnia) andothers are planned.

Outcomes of these activities:•As noted above, multiple presentations and articles have already emerged as outcomesfrom this project. Further presentations, articles, and a book are underway. We also
hope to submit grants for rights-based training in SouthEastern Europe.

Activities planned for the coming months.
FUTURE ACTIVITIES PLANNED AFTER THE END OF THE GRANT:•December 2020: Authors’ chapters are due. Manuscript is due. Human Rights in this Ageof Uncertainty: Social Work Approaches and Practices from Southeast Europe (co-editedby Vjollca Krasniqi and Jane McPherson), to be published in the “European Social Work
Education and Practice series” by Springer.

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May 2021: Two abstracts were accepted for presentation at the European Conference
on Social Work Research in Bucharest, Romania in 2020. Conference has been
rescheduled due to Covid-19.

•November 2021: Manuscript is due. Human Rights in this Age of Uncertainty: Social
Work Approaches and Practices from Southeast Europe (co-edited by Vjollca Krasniqiand Jane McPherson), to be published in the “European Social Work Education andPractice series” by Springer.

•2022: Book is anticipated for 2022. Human Rights in this Age of Uncertainty: Social Work
Approaches and Practices from Southeast Europe (co-edited by Vjollca Krasniqi and JaneMcPherson), to be published in the “European Social Work Education and Practiceseries” by Springer.

Material for the IASSW web page: pictures, summaries, power points, videos, drawings,
interviews, descriptions, quotations. Links to the original material and publications based on
the project can be given to be published on the IASSW website.
••For use on the IASSW website, we attached several photos to the interim reportsubmitted in February 2020. Due to Covid-19, there have been no further face-to-facemeetings or presentations.
Two addenda are attached to this report: 1) the first article on Bosnia; and 2) the
accepted book proposal.

In short, the project has been a great success, and much more work is anticipated.
Submitted by: Jane McPherson & Vjollca Krasniqi
August 10, 2020