What does Justice Demand of Whom?

Ruins of Bulla Regia, Bulla Regia - Tunisia

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña (2019)

What does Justice Demand of Whom?

Getting what is due to everyone

         Justice suggests that “everyone [is] getting what’s due to them” (The Open University, 2020a), but how true is this statement? Millions of people across the world complain that they do not get what is due to them because of their local or national governments, corruption in authorities, power groups, and so on. Their adventure to get what is due to them is plunging them to the deepest woe especially when a motley procession of debonair, white-collared authorities talk to pacify them, and then their words are taken away by the wind and nothing happens whatsoever. When all this takes place, one gets to reflect on what justice really means.

         “There are many different descriptions of justice” (The Open University, 2020b), but what is it? Well, justice can be defined as what is good with everyone without harming others; it is the equity and fairness any human should be treated regardless of their race, creed, social status, age, or wealth. Justice also has to do with equal access to social services a society (through its institutions) can provide its citizens with no distinction. Moreover, justice has to do with the balance between what is good and wrong, and this wrongness has to do with how one affects others or how these others are affecting me and mine. Probably there are many more ways of defining this elusive, rather indomitable ethical construct called justice, but in the end the road takes us back to what is due to them.

         What does justice demand of whom? To give a fair answer to this question, it is essential to visit the construing of justice and the currency of justice. In construing justice, it is necessary to analyze “the level of equality, fairness, deservedness or reciprocity” (The Open University, 2020a) people are exposed to and expect to have from fellow citizen, government authorities, or any other stakeholder. Based on how justice is construed, injustice, in the eyes of who are treated unfairly, is dainty in its way of mistreating them to a point where they feel social systems are plunging their hooks into them to protect the privileged. What is due to them becomes a way to make people feel angered and respond with outrage because their rights are not being met.

         “What is being distributed justly” (The Open University, 2020a) is linked to the currency of justice. For the underprivileged the only thing they shy at is the sight of unjust distribution of what they demand from their governments or social structures: “material goods and resources, liberties, welfare, ... equal life opportunities” (The Open University, 2020a), and so on. These individuals feel that injustice may be creeping from behind in coquettish ways to gobble up what is due to them. Justice, in this particular context, is not something societies are saving for leaner times; justice must be close knit to the social tapestry that guarantees basic human rights for everyone.

         In mankind’s exultation for the declaration of human rights, it looks like the underprivileged repeatedly say to justice, begone from me forever. While we extol the Declaration made by UN on December 10, 1948, the world continues to witness that people are deprived of them. Consider how Afghan girls are not allowed to get any education especially in areas under Taliban control; it is a basic right that is not being respected nor is it made respected by UNICEF. What about the right to assembly in Maduro’s Venezuela or in Ortega-Murillo’s Nicaragua? We find citizens who cannot come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend common interests. There should be political freedom, but the Organization of American States (OAS) cannot guarantee this right for all inhabitants in the Americas. These are just two examples that show us that people do not get what is due to them because of their local or national governments, corruption in authorities, power groups, or the lack of political pressure mechanisms to make rights come true for all.

References

The Open University. (2020a). Global Ethics and Justice. Retrieved November 5, 2020, from FutureLearn.Com: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/global-ethics/3/steps/905604

The Open University. (2020b). What is Justice? Retrieved November 3, 2020, from FutureLearn.Com: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/global-ethics/3/steps/905603

 

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