Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations. We uphold the principles of social justice when we promote gender equality or the rights of indigenous peoples and migrants. We advance social justice when we remove barriers that people face because of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.
For the United Nations, the pursuit of social justice for all is at the core of our global mission to promote development and human dignity. The adoption by the International Labour Organization of the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization is just one recent example of the UN system’s commitment to social justice. The Declaration focuses on guaranteeing fair outcomes for all through employment, social protection, social dialogue, and fundamental principles and rights at work.
“The gap between the poorest and the wealthiest around the world is wide and growing. . .We must do more to empower individuals through decent work, support people through social protection, and ensure the voices of the poor and marginalized are heard.” -Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Message for the 2014 World Day of Social Justice
The General Assembly proclaimed 20 February as World Day of Social Justice in 2007, inviting Member States to devote the day to promoting national activities in accordance with the objectives and goals of the World Summit for Social Development and the twenty-fourth session of the General Assembly. Observance of World Day of Social Justice should support efforts of the international community in poverty eradication, the promotion of full employment and decent work, gender equity and access to social well-being and justice for all.
February 14 (GLOBAL) – The ABA IHRC join with activists around the world for ONE BILLION RISING FOR JUSTICE. The campaign will build upon the energy and momentum that was created on February 14, 2013 when one billion activists in 207 countries and territories came together to rise, strike, and dance, in the biggest mass action in human history, to demand an end to violence against women and girls.
This year, we will focus on the issue of justice for all survivors of gender violence, and ending the rampant impunity that prevails globally. ONE BILLION RISING FOR JUSTICE is a call to women, men, and youth around the world to gather safely on 14 February 2014 outside places where they are entitled to justice – court houses, police stations, government offices, school administration buildings, work places, sites of environmental injustice, military courts, embassies, places of worship, homes, or simply public gathering places where women deserve to feel safe but too often do not.
The campaign is a recognition that we cannot end violence against women without looking at the intersection of poverty, racism, war, the plunder of the environment, capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. Impunity lives at the heart of these interlocking forces.
About One Billion Rising
One Billion Rising was the biggest mass action in human history. The campaign began as a call to action based on the staggering UN statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. On 14 February 2013, people across the world came together to strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women. Over 10,000 events took place on the ground and the campaign took over media and social media worldwide for 48 hours, trending in 7 countries – 4 times in the US alone. The wildly successful grassroots campaign was covered widely by media in all corners of world including The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, and many more.
About V-Day
V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works. The V-Day movement has raised over $100 million; educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it; crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns; reopened shelters; and funded over 13,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Egypt, and Iraq. V-Day has received numerous acknowledgements and awards and is, one of the Top-Rated organizations on both Charity Navigator and Guidestar. V-Day’s most recent global campaign, ONE BILLION RISING, galvanized over one billion women and men on a global day of action towards ending violence against women and girls.
❤ ONE BILLION RISING
❤ V-DAY
(Baghdad) – Iraqi authorities are detaining thousands of Iraqi women illegally and subjecting many to torture and ill-treatment, including the threat of sexual abuse. Iraq’s weak judiciary, plagued by corruption, frequently bases convictions on coerced confessions, and trial proceedings fall far short of international standards. Many women were detained for months or even years without charge before seeing a judge.
The 105-page report, “‘No One Is Safe’: Abuses of Women in Iraq’s Criminal Justice System,” documents abuses of women in detention based on interviews with women and girls, Sunni and Shia, in prison; their families and lawyers; and medical service providers in the prisons at a time of escalating violence involving security forces and armed groups. Human Rights Watch also reviewed court documents and extensive information received in meetings with Iraqi authorities including Justice, Interior, Defense, and Human Rights ministry officials, and two deputy prime ministers.
“Iraqi security forces and officials act as if brutally abusing women will make the country safer,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “In fact, these women and their relatives have told us that as long as security forces abuse people with impunity, we can only expect security conditions to worsen.” In January 2013, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki promised to reform the criminal justice system, beginning with releasing detained women who had judicial orders of release. A year later, the brutal tactics of security forces remain essentially the same and hundreds of women remain in detention illegally.
Excerpt, read more at Human Rights Watch
Lalela Project provides arts education to youth affected by extreme poverty, sparking creative thinking and awakening the entrepreneurial spirit. Our role in arts education is not to churn out artists, it is to help blaze the trail in whole brain thinking that has proven a path to innovation and new job creation. We start early [age 6] in developing imagination in safe spaces that invites the freedom to thinking differently and dream big. We spend years nurturing the life-skills and the action steps that turn imagination into creation.
"Lalela Project has helped me dream up a new person in me." Anthony, age 15
What We Do
In the Western Cape, South Africa, Lalela Project year-round, community-based arts education and leadership workshops to children grades one through twelve in a safe space during the vulnerable after-school hours and holiday periods. We use the power of the arts to help students navigate a clear path that is often cluttered with the hazards of extreme poverty. Our primary communities are Masiphumelele, Imizamo Yethu, Hangberg, Manenburg and Nyanga.
"I want to be a job maker, not a job taker." Melikhaya, age 16
As our learners move toward the last years of high school, we help them find stable career paths in a country with vertiginous unemployment levels. With that in mind, we partner with organizations that expose our students to cultural experiences, and with corporations that provide them with internship opportunities. Once our learners matriculate, the experiences and skills acquired during their internships often allow them to achieve job placements, as well as scholarships for college and professional training. Thus, through life skills training and the power of the arts, we hope to accompany our learners from kindergarten until they enter the job market as capable and creative adults.
"It is just wonderful to have Lalela Project at the school. You can see the attitude change. There is now a sense of, ‘I want to be at school. I want to learn. I want to progress!'" Mr. Julius, Principal of Hout Bay High School in Western Cape.
In July 2013, Lalela Project partnered with the David Rattray Foundation to bring our arts curriculum to children in rural Kwazulu Natal. And in October 2012, Lalela Project completed construction of its I AM Peace Center for the Arts on the campus of Hope North, a living and learning community center for former child soldiers, orphans, and other vulnerable children in Northern Uganda.
Through our partnership with Iziko South African National Gallery's Education and Public Programmes, Lalela Project reaches many more students through our signature curriculum. Our guided lessons designed around the temporal exhibits at the museum are currently distributed to schools and centres in other disadvantaged communities.
Through our arts curriculum and its critical messaging component, we ignite imagination and teach children how to map and manifest their dreams and goals, launching a possibility of a different future for themselves and their communities. Research has shown that educational arts is closely linked to academic achievement, social and emotional development and civic engagement. We engage and empower youth in creative thinking and solutions. We believe that innovative and creative young people will contribute to social and economic development.
To learn more, visit www.lalelaproject.org
Contact info@lalelaproject.org
United Nations Voluntary Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery Call for Online Applications!
The Secretariat of the United Nations Voluntary Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery launched in 2013 an online system to allow organizations to submit applications for funding and reports on the use of grants in a more user-friendly and paperless fashion. The registration and application for requests for funding for 2015 will be opened from 15 January to 1 March 2014. Late applications will NOT be considered.
RightsCon 2014 - Where Advanced Technological Solutions Are Applied to Global Human Rights Challenges - This March 3-5 at Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, Access is bringing the RightsCon summit back to Silicon Valley, where human rights experts, investors, corporate leaders, engineers, activists, and government representatives from around the world work to advance solutions to human rights challenges by concentrating on the possibilities within the technology sector. The conference will kick off on Monday March 3rd with interactive programming and a fascinating array of satellite events. Tuesday and Wednesday will see the conference enter full swing. Plan for attendance for all three days.
Learn more or register for the conference here.
Urban Justice Center's Human Rights Project Is Accepting Application for 9th Annual Human Rights Institute - The Human Rights Project at the Urban Justice Center (HRP) is currently accepting applications for their ninth annual Human Rights Institute, which will be held from April 2- 4, 2014 in New York City.
The Institute is a three-day professional development conference that brings select human rights advocates and policymakers from across the country to network, share ideas, and collaborate with others who are working to advance domestic human rights. Participants have the opportunity to learn about the international human rights framework, apply it to their local organizing efforts and become contributors to the growing domestic human rights movement. HRP is delighted to offer this event in partnership with the U.S. Human Rights Network.
Additional information and application materials are available here. Please note that the application process is open until February 7th. A limited number of scholarships are available for those eligible for financial assistance, those applications should be submitted by February 1st.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact cprice@urbanjustice.org.
The Constitutional Court of South Africa Is Accepting Applications For Foreign Law Clerks - The Justices of the Constitutional Court of South Africa are pleased to invite applications from outstanding recent law graduates and young lawyers interested in serving as foreign law clerks. Candidates may be appointed to start as soon as 1 July 2014.
Applications for foreign clerks are accepted and considered on a rolling basis. Applications must include: (1) a cover letter describing the applicant’s interest in the Court’s work, indicating the time frame for which he or she would like to be considered; (2) a full curriculum vitae; (3) copies of all post-secondary academic records (unofficial transcripts are permitted); (4) a legal writing sample of approximately 10-25 pages; and (5) a list of three referees (at least one academic and one professional). Reference letters are preferred.
Applications should be submitted to Mr Mosala Sello in the Chambers of Justice Johann van der Westhuizen, who will respond with an email acknowledging receipt of each application:
Post
Constitutional Court of South Africa
Attn: Mr Mosala Sello
Private Bag X1
Braamfontein
2017
Email: Mr Mosala - Sellosello@concourt.org.za
Further details on the programme may be found on the Constitutional Court website: www.constitutional court.org.za. Applicants requiring additional information, or wishing to confirm receipt of their application, may also contact Mr Sello via email (sello@concourt.org.za) or telephone (+27 11 359 7427).
Venice Academy of Human Rights 2014: "Judicial Legitimacy and the Rule of Law" - The Venice Academy of Human Rights is an international programme of excellence for human rights education, research and debate. It forms part of the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC).
The Academy offers interdisciplinary thematic programmes open to academics, practitioners, doctoral and master students with an advanced knowledge of human rights. Participants attend morning lectures, participate in discussion sessions and workshops and can exchange views, ideas and arguments with leading international scholars and experts. This includes the opportunity for a number of participants to present and discuss their own “work in progress” such as drafts of articles, chapters of books or doctoral theses and receive comments from faculty members (including P. Alston, A. Føllesdal, G. Ulfstein and J. Waldron) and peers. At the end of the programme, participants receive a Certificate of Attendance issued by the Venice Academy of Human
Rights.
The Venice Academy of Human Rights will take place from 7-16 July 2014. The theme of this year’s academy is ‘Judicial Legitimacy and the Rule of Law’. Online applications are accepted until 4 May 2014. The Academy offers an "early bird" registration with a reduced participation fee until 15 March 2014.
Contact
Human Rights European Inter-University,
Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC)
Human Rights Village
Knut Traisbach | Programme Responsible | Venice Academy of
Monastero di San Nicolò | Riviera San Nicolò 26 | 30126 Venezia - Lido | Italy
http://www.eiuc.org/veniceacademy
