#IHaveTheRight

SolidarityNow: Ensuring Social Justice

The World Day of Social Justice is celebrated every year on February 20th. Social justice is a continuous political and social claim. Many struggles have taken and taking place for social justice, as it gives rise to ideological and political oppositions.

But what is Social Justice? We can summarize its idea in some values ​​critical to an inclusive democracy: the general acceptance of the principle of Freedom for all, Equal and Fair treatment for all people without discrimination, Acceptance of the different and of inequalities, only as long as access to rights is open to all and only if it is intended to improve the lives of the most vulnerable and the less favored; social justice is the promotion of the basic social rights of people who are experiencing exclusion.

The erosion of the welfare state halts the access of all citizens to basic and inalienable rights such as Justice, Health, Housing, Employment, Education. SolidarityNow -through its Legal Services operating at the organization’s Solidarity Centers in Athens and Thessaloniki, but also with its Advocacy Department working to push for policy changes-, seeks to facilitate vulnerable social groups to claim their social and individual rights. And, at the same time, to criticize and put pressure on decision makers in order to limit the phenomena of favoritism.

On the occasion of the World Day for Social Justice we share the stories of Eleni, Mariam, Mohammed, Olga and Stefka, people who SolidarityNow supported, empowered and helped to reclaim their rights. To a degree, their struggle is an act of reclaiming Social Justice.