What is Social Justice?

Those who suffer need committed defenders of our shared humanity.

Social Justice is about what is and is not fair and right.

To work for social justice is also to take exception to injustice.  This involves at least four elements:

• standing with the marginalised, in practical, ‘grounded’ ways;
• a critique of existing society, especially for the tendency of patterns of injustice to recur across generations;
• ‘speaking truth to power’ whenever dignity is endangered; and
• a vision of different possibilities, of what could be.  Work for justice in light of this might be as ‘small’ as urging a policy adjustment - or as ‘big’ as calling for a new vision, or culture, or economic and social structures, or rejection of armed conflict, or relating differently to the earth.

What a Social Justice Institute should do partly depends on how social justice is conceived.  Social justice – in a sentence – might be termed a situation where individuals and entire societies have substantial – perhaps roughly equivalent – opportunities for the sensation of human dignity, along with general wellbeing and human development.  For more info download the document Why a Social Justice Institute? (PDF 83.29Kb)

Want to learn more about Social Justice and Human Rights with us?  Visit our Education and Training page for more information, or contact us anytime.