2/21/11

A Call for Social Justice

The United Nations, which marked a "World Day of Social Justice" on Sunday is calling for a "new era" in which all the people of the world have access to basic services and "decently" paying jobs.

According to the U.N., 80 percent of the world’s people lack “adequate social protection.”

To eliminate the problem, the U.N. is trying to establish what it calls a global "social protection floor." Such a “floor” would guarantee food security, health services for all, and old-age pensions for the 80 percent of the world’s people believed to lack such protections.

In his message urging “social justice for all,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “No one should live below a certain income level, and everyone should have access to essential public services such as water and sanitation, health and education.”

Juan Somavia, the U.N.’s International Labour Organization (ILO) director-general, said the recent protests in the Middle East show the linkage between social justice and national stability. “What happens in the future will very much depend on whether the connections are recognized and acted upon.”

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