It is not by sheer coincidence that the 20th day of February has been year-marked to connote the values and importance of Social Justice across the world. Testing civilization after civilization; culture after culture; it has been revealed that law and order is not enough to keep a modern society at its fairest. Social justice as a concept, thus, has arisen out of the need to balance out and fill the loopholes and inadequacies left open in law.
The Social Justice Declaration for a Fair Globalization which was announced by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on 10th June 2008 focuses on guaranteeing fair outcomes for all through employment, social protection, social dialogue, and fundamental principles and rights at work.
We often say that the world is not fair, yet if we stand aside all the time and just watch while an injustice is going on, we might just have contributed to the same injustice. As we know, tyranny has existed in many spheres of society even as patriarchy itself was rife. And as the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka once remarked, “The man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of injustice.”
Many people, especially those of minority extraction, have found themselves severely marginalized, ostracized, and discriminated against just because of whom they are, their lack of privilege or what they believe in. No law ever has protected these set of people who are vastly outnumbered until top world organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Commonwealth of Nations, and even countries such as the United States began to give attention and voice to social justice proper.
Statistics has shown in many places around the world that discrimination against women, the gay community, castes, coloured people and so on across organizations and platforms has limited the access these marginalized groups have had to available opportunities.
In societies where misogyny was rife, social justice perhaps was the platform which gave movements such as Feminism additional leverage. Feminism as a movement now has a feather added to its rank for speaking for marginalized communities and sections, even in developing countries such as in Nigeria.
Income inequality among different classes of citizens has also been a subject of economic concern for governments across the world. The more common income inequality is in a nation the less accessible will be the opportunities these disadvantaged group of people will be able to utilize them. This would be a reason why income redistribution is paramount in the minds of some leaders as a means of providing access and taking more resources to the economically disadvantaged people from the over-abundance of the wealthy.
The commemoration of days such as this aptly tagged Social Justice Day, thus not only seeks to remind people and leaders across industry and government that more needs to be done to lift up people who are severely disadvantaged. It is also a reminder to the people that an equal society does more good to our humanity than harm.
Social Justice Day is a day to remember that we as humans will live better in harmony when we do not allow class, greed and power to further divide us. This is a day to be reminded that humanity stands to benefit even more in advancement if our society is level and discrimination against any group, people or belief is killed off totally.
Featured image source: Daily Times
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