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Social justice is the Road to Development

Dr.  Ahlam Al-Qobati

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Various United Nations reports stated that the world population lacks (80%) of basic social services, which has increased the pace of inequality, and from here we call for the importance of paying attention to social justice and the pursuit of equal work opportunities and ensuring the protection of the vulnerable and the poor and marginalized classes.

Social justice can be defined in a simple way as being part of a joint cooperation between several parties in order to understand the needs of individuals and societies, and to establish development programs capable of providing them with assistance so that they can cope with the difficulties they face, and work to spare them the seriousness of these difficulties by providing an adequate standard of living, starting with providing suitable job opportunities for all groups, especially the weak and poor, and passing through to protecting citizenship rights for all without any discrimination under any sectarian or class name.

Yemen has been known throughout history as “the happy Yemen” and “the land of prosperity and happiness,” but now it has become the poorest country. In this regard, and before the outbreak of the recent conflicts in Yemen, a report was issued by the World Bank in 2006 on the situation in Yemen, in which it clarified that poverty rates in Yemen are still deeper and more severe than any other country in the Middle East and North Africa region.

From here the importance of studying social phenomena in Yemen emerges, which relate to the general problems of members of society, especially the weak and the poor, and it is important to work to define their needs, especially those related to living problems and the requirements for overcoming them, and to use the results of studies that have been conducted at the level of various groups of society.

It is possible to benefit from the results of listing organizations, bodies, resources and capabilities that exist in both the environment and society, and to determine the extent to which they are utilized for the actual benefit of the weak, poor and marginalized, in addition to limiting the areas in which each category can benefit from the environment and society, defining them within the limits of their resources and capabilities, and discovering the bodies assigned to them with responsibilities for implementing the program aimed at providing appropriate job opportunities and facilitating livelihoods and training.

The main and primary role in implementing development programs for various socially and economically troubled societies is to work to help individuals identify their requirements and problems, and overcome them, and develop and refine the capabilities and talents of individuals, Satisfying the needs of all groups in a fair manner in order to avoid the recurrence and spread of problems in society, and to enable individuals to carry out their social role in a normal and sound manner.

Among the factors that impede the achievement of social justice objectives factors that are related to individuals, the system of government, the available societal capabilities, or the spread of corruption, which we find a form of in the manifestations of the acquisition of oil and gas resources and natural sites of economic and tourism importance, especially the areas that are characterized by their natural richness and their biological diversity and livelihood. Here the people are deprived of benefiting or investing what these environmental features possess in terms of important livelihood, tourism and life components that are controlled by a group of individuals who support each other forming an integrated corruption organization, thus showing class disparity, extremes of wealth and extreme poverty this is what is happening in Yemen.

In general, the concept of social justice can be summarized as achieving a system of rights equally for all individuals, focusing on the weak and the poor through a series of values ​​and goals, looking at individuals from a humanitarian standpoint, and working to provide their rights, which include focusing on two main values:

  1. Recognition of the dignity and humanity of individuals.

  2.  The imperative to provide individual rights and opportunities for a decent life in a fair and equal manner for all.

 

On the basis that a person is an integrated whole, the four elements of his personality - psychological, mental, physical and social - interact always, as long as he lives in a human and social environment, and then any disorder in one of these elements is a result of the person interacting with his other elements in a wrong way, which causes this disorder.

 

Provided that community members are taken care of not from an abstract point of view, such as caring for the living and economic side only, but as a person who has psychological and social needs that must be properly satisfied in order to benefit from and utilize his environment and society.

The imbalance of social justice is one of the most severe challenges that results in an imbalance of human behavior, and the individual who lives in an environment in which there is no equality, his feeling of marginalization, dissatisfaction and exclusion becomes blatant challenges to the imbalance of the value system, which leads to a weakness in the possibility of achieving development goals and a set of negative behaviors emerge from it, such as corruption and favoritism, which undermine the values ​​of social justice, undermine social stability and hinder human development in the long run.

In conclusion, it is possible to reduce these imbalances, in addition to providing suitable job opportunities for individuals to improve their standard of living, and to focus on development programs that take into account the development of individuals’ skills and abilities and can help achieve social and economic development, in addition to all of this, the following must be done:

  1. Developing skills to accept difference, to deal with difference, to become a factor of building and development.

  2.  The development of cooperative attitudes among individuals, and acceptance of the other rather than conflict.

  3.  Reducing negative habits, whether behavioral or consumptive, and instilling economic and productive awareness among individuals according to their abilities.

  4.   Developing awareness of the importance of work for the individual, family and society.

  5.  The development of belonging to the community and the homeland, and respect for the rights of others, and public property.

  6.  Development of social responsibility standards towards society and the nation.

  7. Establishing periodic plans to evaluate the various development programs after their implementation; as the evaluation process makes the officials decide whether these programs have achieved their goals or not, and helps the various parties to identify gaps and then address them.

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