Social Justice

• Social justice is the idea of enabling human beings to access their inalienable natural rights (human rights) and legal rights afforded them by legislation, international treaties, court orders, law of equity, common law or customs. Social justice differs from legal justice in that the latter follows a list of rules or laws of a country to mete out punishment or compensate the injured, while the former is about concepts of equality and fairness, which legal justice plays a part in protecting
• Role of social justice

  1. Make sure that people's unalienable human rights are not denied, neglected or legally overlooked by governments, industrialists, armed forces and others in pursuit of power, wealth or any other personal or national ambitions

  2. Ensure that all groups, regardless of race, class, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views, are viewed and treated equally under the laws that govern their territory

  3. Enable equal access to all resources and opportunities to which a citizen of a country is legally entitled

  4. Empower people to gain access to an improved quality of life, such as clean air, habitable living spaces, acceptable medical care and a valuable education

  5. Ensure that governments, religious leaders, businesses, industries and all those given the responsibility to care and provide for people, carry out their responsibilities effectively and without prejudice

  6. Promote the implementation of legal systems and sanctions that will minimise corruption and discrimination that may lead to the marginalisation, unfair treatment, ill health and death of vulnerable groups
• Natural rights, sometimes termed human rights, need to be upheld if social justice is to function, and are supported by the highest forms of law in most countries. These rights are enforced and even entrenched in modern constitutions to ensure that no group can claim dominance over another through the use of force or institutionalised discrimination leading to the lowering of the social or economic status of the disadvantaged group, or even its disappearance.
• The main functions of natural rights

  • Protect human beings from enslavement and forced labour systems
  • Protect the legal rights of citizens by ensuring that they have equal access to the judiciary system and a fair public hearing in the event that they are accused of crimes
  • Protect the economic and social rights of all citizens and promote equal access to education, employment opportunities, amenities and the right to own property
  • Underpin international laws giving citizens of a country civil and political rights, which include the franchise and the right to enter public office
  • Protect ethnic groups from being marginalised or debased by systems established by dominant groups to try to prove or reinforce their superiority over others. This is to ensure the protection of indigenous
• Welfare systems

  Are a means of promoting social justice through distribution of resources according to need. Traditionally, welfare systems have been established to aid those citizens who fall below the poverty line, those with special needs, the unemployed, citizens with serious medical issues and orphaned and neglected children.
• Mutual advantage

  
  

  The idea behind mutual advantage is that citizens requiring help from welfare programme need to reciprocate in the form of an informal contract in which they undertake to use the advantages of welfare to lift themselves out of poverty and thus eventually make a contribution to society or the economy.
• Reflections of social justice in practice

  • Protection and promotion of natural rights
  • Welfare system to meet the needs of underprivileged citizens in order to promote equality
  • Implementation of the concept of mutual advantage to promote a mutually beneficial relationship between state and recipients based on merit and reciprocation
• Mutual advantage

  Some view it as counter to social justice as the 'agreement' involved is unequal, being imposed on one side by the other
• Concepts of fairness

  • Unconditional welfare, seen as the most effective means to achieve equality
  • Mutual advantage, seen as a way to help promote
• There is much debate about the different concepts of fairness embodied the ideas of unconditional welfare and mutual advantage
• Discrimination

  Discrimination is often, but not always, the result of prejudice. Prejudices may arise out of a person’s limited understanding of a culture, race or organisation; prejudice stereotypes emerge when this limited understanding leads to a negative generalisation of racial or social groups.
• Types of discrimination

  • Ageism
  • Gender
  • Racism and Class Discrimination
  • Discrimination on the Grounds of Sexual Orientation
  • Police Brutality
• Breaches of Social Justice Affecting Indicators of Development

  • Equity
  • Productivity
  • Sustainability
  • Empowerment
• Social inequality by definition is in itself a breach of social justice as it involves the uneven distribution of wealth within a country and the existence of unequal opportunities and conditions for different social groups. It occurs when the people in a country are divided into groups based on race, gender, class, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity and educational achievements.
• The quality of life is the degree to which one is satisfi ed with one’s life. If the GDP per capita is high, it means the majority of people should have enough income to enjoy a comfortable and healthy life.
• Democratic rights are those rights associated with choosing and participating in government, at both a local and national level.

  Good governance is the indicator of development associated with this and involves a free and fair electoral process with elections held regularly, transparency in the processeses of government and decision making based on consensus.