World Day of Social Justice

Context

World Day of Social Justice is celebrated annually all over the world on 20 February.

• Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations. 

Objective 

• The main objective of celebrating World Day of Social Justice is to raise a voice against social injustice and to bring the various communities internationally together to eliminate poverty, gender, physical discrimination, illiteracy, religious discrimination to make a socially integrated society.
• To raise voices against social injustice and to remove barriers regarding gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, or disability, World Social Justice Day is observed. On this day, many schools, colleges, and universities do special activities and organise events around a theme related to poverty, social and economic exclusion, or unemployment. So that the students may know that it is necessary to uphold the principles of social justice.

History

• On 26 November 2007, the General Assembly declared that starting from the sixty-third session of the General Assembly, 20 February will be celebrated annually as the World Day of Social Justice.
• The International Labour Organisation unanimously adopted the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation on 10 June 2008. 
• This is the third major statement of principles and policies adopted by the International Labour Conference since the ILO’s Constitution of 1919. 
• It builds on the Philadelphia Declaration of 1944 and the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work of 1998. 
• The 2008 Declaration expresses the contemporary vision of the ILO’s mandate in the era of globalisation.

Theme

• This year's World Day of Social Justice theme is Achieving Social Justice through Formal Employment.
• World Day of Social Justice 2021 Theme: “A Call for Social Justice in the Digital Economy”
• The theme of World Day of Social Justice 2020 is "Closing the Inequalities Gap to Achieve Social Justice”.