World Day of Social Justice

The General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 20 February as World Day of Social Justice. The day was to be observed for the first time in 2009.

Website: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/social/intldays/IntlJustice/index.html

The General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 20 February as World Day of Social Justice. The day was to be observed for the first time in 2009.

Website: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/social/intldays/IntlJustice/index.html

Member states were invited to devote this special day to the promotion of concrete national activities in accordance with the objectives and goals of the World Summit for Social Development and the twenty-fourth session of the General Assembly, entitled “World Summit for Social Development and beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalizing world”.

As recognized by the World Summit, social development aims at social justice, solidarity, harmony and equality within and among countries and social justice, equality and equity constitute the fundamental values of all societies. To achieve “a society for all” governments made a commitment to the creation of a framework for action to promote social justice at national, regional and international levels. They also pledged to promote the equitable distribution of income and greater access to resources through equity and equality and opportunity for all. The governments recognized as well that economic growth should promote equity and social justice and that “a society for all” must be based on social justice and respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The observance of the day should contribute to the further consolidation of the efforts of the international community in poverty eradication, promotion of full employment and decent work, gender equity and access to social well-being and justice for all.

The International Forum for Social Development

Social Justice in an Open World

The Role of the United Nations

PDF [157p.] at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/ifsd/SocialJustice.pdf

Content:
Foreword
Introduction
1 Dimensions of international justice and social justice
1.1 International justice: legal and developmental aspects
1.2 Social justice: a recent and politically charged concept
1.3 Social justice: the equivalent of distributive justice
1.4 Economic justice: a component of social justice
1.5 Universal grounds for the determination of what is just and what is unjust
1.6 Three critical domains of equality and equity
1.7 Six important areas of inequality in the distribution of goods, opportunities and rights
1.8 The need for further distinction and greater precision

2 Rising inequalities among countries
2.1 National sovereignty and the right of intervention
2.2 Equality among Member States and inequalities in power
2.3 The developmental aspect of international justice: a legitimate concern?
2.4 Evidence of the decline in international justice from a developmental perspective

3 Rising inequalities among people
3.1 Issues relating to the reliability and diversity of sources of information
3.2 Trends in six major areas of inequality among people
3.3 Progress in critical aspects of “horizontal” equality
3.4 Economic justice and social injustice: the current state of affairs

4 International justice and the United Nations: from the new international economic order to the
Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals
4.1 Auspicious beginnings for development and international cooperation
4.2 Questioning the development model and seeking a new distribution of power in the world
4.3 A new consensus: the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals
4.4 International justice through cooperation and partnership
4.5 Critical views on the prevalent conception of international justice .

5 Social justice and the United Nations: the divide between human rights and economic and social development
5.1 Auspicious beginnings for the promotion of human rights and justice
5.2 Social justice seen as a substitute for the protection of human rights
5.3 The World Summit for Social Development: an attempt to reconcile social justice and the protection of human rights
5.4 The short life of the commitments made in Copenhagen
5.5 The focus on poverty eradication
6 Are international justice and social justice politically obsolete concepts? .
6.1 Less redistribution because of lack of resources?
6.2 The effect of different policies on patterns of distribution
6.3 A great political and ideological transformation with strong implications for the idea of distributional justice
6.4 The dangers of a world indifferent to justice
7 Concluding notes on the role of the United Nations

ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization

International Labour Conference at its Ninety-seventh Session, Geneva, 10 June 2008

PDF [25p.] at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---cabinet/documents/publication/wcms_099766.pdf