| by Ruwantissa Abeyratne
“The road we travel is equal in importance to the destination we seek.
There are no shortcuts. When it comes to truth and reconciliation, we are all forced to go the distance.”
…Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, to the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, September 28, 2010
( March 14, 2013, Montreal , Sri Lanka Guardian) The United Nations General Assembly, at its sixty second session held on 19 November 2007, through General Assembly Resolution A/RES/62/10 proclaimed 20 February as World Day of Social Justice. Accordingly, this day is celebrated annually and is dedicated to social justice. The Resolution invited United Nations Member States 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 with a view to achieving social development for all in a globalized world.
One of the fundamental aims of the World Summit was to achieve social justice, solidarity, harmony and equality, all of which constitute equity within and among countries. Governments have committed themselves, in accordance with this objective, to creating a framework of action to promote social justice at national, regional and international levels. Some of the elements which fall under the purview of social justice are the eradication of poverty; equal distribution of income; promotion of full employment; gender equity; social wellbeing; and greater access to resources on an equal basis.
Lorraine Gutiérrez, in an essay submitted to the journal Social Work Today states: “If we are to work toward social justice, we need to engage in the work involved in celebrating difference and diversity. I use the word celebrate based on its original meanings, which refers to honor, respect, or recognize. We must move beyond tolerating or accepting those who are different from ourselves to a position of cultural humility that requires us to question our own background and experiences to work in partnership with others. When working from this perspective, we, as social workers, must be engaged in on-going self-assessment and awareness of how power differences affect our ability to be genuinely helpful. This process is an essential element of social justice work”.
One school of thought, which is reflected in the Newsletter of the Council of Social Justice of Wilfred Laurier University in Canada, is that Social justice must essentially be begotten through a social revolution. They cite Martin Luther King, Jr. who “knew and saw this need and … understood one of the biggest sources of injustice, and that it rests waiting within: what we value and fail to value”. King is quoted as stating in his famous speeches on opposing the war in Vietnam, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin… we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.”
The Newsletter goes on to say: “Social justice can only come through social revolution because how we judge one another, how we judge what we and others deserve and how they deserve to be treated must radically alter if genuine justice is to come and be achieved. Otherwise the cycle of injustice will always repeat itself”.
Social justice, when viewed in the context of rehabilitation and development, carries this fundamental principle of a social revolution, coupled with the complimentary elements of law, morality, compassion and truth. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa, based in Cape town, and established under the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No. 34 of 1995, bore witness to, recorded and in some cases granted amnesty to the perpetrators of crimes relating to human rights violations, and recommended reparation and rehabilitation. Its raison détre was to find out the truth as against punishing perpetrators.
The Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up by the Government of Canada, was mandated to inquire into facts pertaining to a residential school system for aboriginal children, which existed up until the 1990s, established by the Canadian government, in partnership with a number of Christian churches. These government- funded, usually church-run schools and residences were set up to assimilate Aboriginal people forcibly into the Canadian mainstream by eliminating parental and community involvement in the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual development of Aboriginal children. More than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children were placed in what were known as Indian residential schools. As a matter of policy, the children commonly were forbidden to speak their own language or engage in their own cultural and spiritual practices. Generations of children were traumatized by the experience.
In its interim Report released in 2012 the Commission identified its mission as : “to reveal the complete story of Canada’s residential school system, and lead the way to respect through reconciliation … for the child taken, for the parent left behind”. Its Vision Statement was: “We will reveal the truth about residential schools, and establish a renewed sense of Canada that is inclusive and respectful, and that enables reconciliation.
Social justice requires a catharsis of truth and compassion. Without truth, justice cannot prevail, and without respect and compassion, morality cannot prevail. At the end of the day, social justice is about respect for human rights and dignity. A government’s authority comes from the will of the people. Everyone has the right to work and people have the right to choose the kind of job they want to do. Everyone has the right to good working conditions. Everyone has the right to equal pay for equal work. People should earn enough to keep themselves and their families healthy, to give them enough food to eat and enough clothes to wear, somewhere to live and medical attention when they are ill. Everyone has the right to own property. Anything that belongs to a person cannot be taken away from him or her unless there is a fair reason. Everyone has the right to think the way they like. People have the right to hold opinions and tell other people what their opinions are, and they have the right to practice their religion in private or in public. All people have the right to meet together and to form associations. But no one can be forced to join an association if he or she does not want to.
Everyone has the right to live, the right to be free and the right to personal safety. No one can be someone else’s slave. No one is to be hurt or to be punished in cruel or humiliating ways. The law must be the same for everyone. The law must protect everyone. People have the right to be protected by the courts, so that their rights are respected. People cannot be arrested or sent away from their country, unless it is for a very serious reason. Everyone has the right to a fair trial. No one has the right to interfere in other peoples’ lives, in their families, in their homes or in their correspondence. People have the right of free movement within their country. People have the right to leave any country, even their own, and then return.
Social justice is epitomized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, some principles of which I have alluded to above.
