Social justice is a key element which aims to get rid of the inequalities caused by issues such as human rights violations, unemployment, unfair distribution of income, war and internal conflicts, inequality of women and men, immigration, and racism. The goal of social justice is to provide a fair life to everyone.
The poverty and inequalities between different countries and within the same country is showing a rising trend in many parts of the world. Covid -19 pandemic, environmental disasters caused by the climate change, earthquakes, and armed conflicts intensify the existing economic and social crises.
Social justice ensures that societies and economy perform better, and that poverty, inequality, and social tensions are mitigated. Ensuring social justice has an important role on the issues of actualization of a more comprehensive development, and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. Establishment of social justice is a necessity for the protection and improvement of fundamental rights and freedoms, and ensuring access to human rights as well.
It is accepted that universal and permanent peace can only be established upon the basis of social justice. In line with this, in order to increase the awareness of principle of social justice, and spread its application, the United Nations (UN) accepted that 20 February of every year be celebrated as the "World Day of Social Justice" in 26 November 2007. The theme decided by UN for the year 2023 was announced to be “Overcoming Barriers and Unleashing Opportunities for Social Justice.”
In the Preample of the Constitution of The Republic Of Türkiye, it is stated "that every Turkish citizen has an innate right and power, to lead an honourable life and to improve his/her material and spiritual wellbeing under the aegis of national culture, civilization, and the rule of law, through the exercise of the fundamental rights and freedoms set forth in this Constitution, in conformity with the requirements of equality and social justice." Again, the Article 2 of the Constitution, which is among the irrevocable articles of the Constitution, states that the State is vested with social and law principles. The vulnerable groups to be protected in terms of social justice are mentioned in the Article 56 of the Constitution too.
As a result of the great earthquake disaster which occured on 6 February 2023, severe devastations have happened in the provinces of Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Şanlıurfa. These devastations have made a lot of people's access to the fundamental rights, especially right to work, right to health, right to housing and shelter, access to clean water, right to food, and safety harder or rendered it impossible.
Disasters also bring about the risks of deepening and increasing the social inequalities in the society. The devastating results of the disaster can especially affect vulnerable groups such as women, children, disabled persons, poor persons and older people disproportionately, and can cause inequalities to deepen. Hence, social justice and fundamental human rights should be paid attention to during all stages of the disaster management from disaster preparedness to the reconstruction of disaster zones.
In these days when we are trying to heal our wounds as a country after such a great disaster, we need to show greater efforts in ensuring social justice, which we need more than ever nowadays, as a State and a nation. We hereby hope that the social justice becomes stronger in our country and the world.
Respectfully announced to the public.