As I am progressing through my internship, I have been contemplating the social work concepts of Human Rights and Social Justice recently, as they relate to my placement setting. In my placement, there is strong emphasis on both. However in some instances there are times it seems that these concepts could be in conflict with each other. For example, in reviewing the “list” of suggested human rights as noted in the CSWE Competencies, “freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate standard of living, health care, and education; I keep questioning if these are supposed to be in hierarchical order, or how does one decide how to deal with conflicts? I have already witnessed situations in which I felt that perhaps a client’s freedom and privacy were respected, but it was at the expense of their safety, standard of living, and quality of health care. I do believe that all people should have access to these basic rights and social services, however ultimately providers need to respect an individual’s freedom first and foremost if there is a perceived conflict. Human rights can sometimes seem like a large and distance international concern, however working in a small community it is helpful to remember that we all affect human rights in how we interact with each other, in small ways. "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." (Roosevelt, 1958) This quote by Eleanor Roosevelt on the tenth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, reminds us that that human rights start at home with how we treat our neighbors.