Should human rights NGOs work on social justice issues? Can human rights activists work with the global social justice movement? Some believe that human rights advocates must tackle problems like global wealth inequalities, while others warn that doing so will compromise their core task of defending civil and political rights. In the middle are those looking for ways to use human rights advocacy to improve the lot of the poor and marginalized, even if not fully embracing radical demands for global social justice.
Yet, it makes little sense to contrast “human rights” or “human rights advocacy” to “social justice” or “social justice activism”—these are all malleable concepts. Demands for human rights and demands for social justice are different but also overlapping. The degree to which they overlap will depend on how each concept is defined, and this in turn depends on who is doing the defining.
Thus, for those demanding an end to corporate control of democratic institutions under the label “social justice”, the rights to political participation, freedom of association, information and equality in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) at least partially support such a demand. Similarly, equality and non-discrimination guarantees in the UDHR and other standards provide a principled basis for many social justice demands regarding the emancipation of women or downtrodden castes, or for ending discrimination against the poor qua poor.
