 20 February 2012 -- Social justice and human rights are fundamentally linked. Social development and social justice are indispensable for the achievement and maintenance of peace and security within and among nations and cannot be attained in the absence of respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations. We uphold the principles of social justice when we promote gender equality or the rights of indigenous peoples and migrants. We advance social justice when we remove barriers that people face because of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability. At its core, the idea of social justice affirms the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights".
In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 20 February as the World Day of Social Justice. Every year, governments are invited to commemorate the day through national activities supporting the efforts of the international community to eradicate poverty, promote full employment and decent work, achieve gender equity and provide access to social well-being and justice for all.
Source: United Nations
Selected learning materials
Eliminating the worst forms of child labour: A practical guide to ILO Convention No. 182
This handbook is intended to serve as a practical aid to the understanding of the problem of child labour and its worst forms and aims to encourage effective action to tackle it.
Global Education Guidelines: A Handbook for educators to understand and implement global education
This handbook is a pedagogical tool to support educators in formal and non-formal systems to understand and put into practice global education activities. Global education is understood by the authors to encompass development education, human rights education, education for sustainability, education for peace and conflict prevention and intercultural education.
Human Rights and Service-Learning: Lesson Plans and Projects
This manual contains lessons and service-learning projects on social justice themes. The lesson plans are divided into five human rights topic areas: environment, poverty, discrimination, children's rights to education and health, and law and justice.
Rights-Based Approaches: Learning Project
The failure to respect, protect, or fulfil human rights is a fundamental and leading obstacle to economic development and social justice. This report presents the findings of a collaborative Learning Project between CARE USA and Oxfam America and identifies 'best practices' and lessons that may be used to improve the application of rights-based approaches in programming.
International treaties related to social justice:
Declaration on the Right to Development (1988)
ILO Declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work (1998)
ILO Convention (182) concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999)
Useful links
International Labour Organization
ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Division for Social Policy and Development
Voices on Social Justice (ILO)
World Day of Social Justice 2012 (United Nations)
World Summit for Social Development: Copenhagen 1995
Links to organisations involved in sustainable development work
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