Social work remains concerned about the widespread human rights abuses and the various forms of exclusions and injustices experienced by the world’s downtrodden majorities all too often to further neo-colonial and neo-liberal interests. ASSWA has over the past few years hosted a list-server though which we have raised vibrant debates and discussions around inclusion, social justice and human rights. Particular issues that were discussed included, amongst others, xenophobia, cross border migrants and refugees, gay rights and so-called natural disasters. The list-server has also been used for advocacy and lobbying around particular issues. Discussions about the relevance of human rights in Africa resurface from time to time. Some of the most serious areas of contention and debate have been around cultural specificity and univeral rights, and individual versus group rights. Even within social work, there have been assertions that human rights could be regarded as a Western imposition, rather than something embraceable by Africans themselves. Such arguments oddly reinforce claims that are popular with many a dictator, on record for having argued that their national sovereignty was more important than their citizens’ and resident’s civil and political rights. It is interesting that such particularist and relativist contentions are gaining ground just at the same time when subjugated people, especially from countries in the Global South, are seeking emancipation in the name of universals such as inclusion, democracy, social justice and human rights. Recent events on the African continent such as those in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and elsewhere in the world, reflect people’s commitment and striving for inclusion, justice and democracy. These are not finite goals to be arrived at but values, principles and practices that we constantly strive for – thus the theme: Social work: Towards inclusion, social justice and human rights.