Human Rights advocacy
International Justice Day
Barrister Harun ur Rashid
International Justice Day is being observed across the world including in Bangladesh. This observance of this Day provides awareness among people that justice is to be rendered to all people irrespective of status, gender, and faith.
International Justice simply means justice is to be accorded to all persons under international norms, accepted by all nations of the world. That means domestic laws must conform to international standard. Often it has been found that there is an inextricable connection between domestic law and international law The Bangladesh Constitution of 1972 has borrowed many of its fundamental rights from the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It would be naïve to think that there could be any adequate approach to international justice without constant awareness of the present state of knowledge concerning justice in the domestic context.
Notion of Justice in general
Justice belongs not to this or that class , nor to particular relationship between classes but to society's functioning as a whole. Values have changed or at least the reasons for adhering to certain values, beliefs and subsequent social practices have changed. What may have once been considered fair and just treatment may today be considered unfair and unjust.
Justice evolves through the progress of society. Justice has its foundations on natural law of equal treatment. Nature does not discriminate among people. For example rich and poor will one day have to depart from this mortal world. The centrality of equality is the basis of justice natural law that is common to both domestic and international notion of justice.
We have some idea of the notion of justice. This may be expressed that society shall be so organized that wants of people must be freely expressed, that law must be just and must at least protect the vulnerable section of society. Another precept is that the law's distribution of benefits and burdens should have regard to the principles of equality. Justice is related to adaptation to new situations. This is more so when the world is growing increasingly industrialised and mobile, powered by an unprecedented technological explosion.
Social Justice
Social justice refers to more than just equality before law or the equality of opportunity to achieve an adequate standard of living. Social justice is a matter of perception and attitude which are included within the broader community. Social justice includes three important fundamentalsequality, equity and inclusion. It is the civil society that performs as a watchdog to ensure social justice is rendered to the poorest poor.
Social justice is impossible if gross inequality exists in a given society, although inequality is a pervasive fact of life in the real world. In every country, there is resistance to power and privilege. Social class is a major taken-for-granted factor in the shape of inequalities.
Inequality has many manifestations. There is inequality of power, resources, care, working and learning. Inequality embraces poverty and other forms of deprivation. Privileged classes have more power, more resources, higher social status, better working conditions and greater access to education. Women are on the whole worse off in terms of resources, status, power, work and education than men.
Justice means existence of affordable legal system
The role of judiciary is to provide justice under the law and the constitution, protect human rights and keep the executive (government) in check and ensure laws enacted by Parliament conform to the provisions of the Constitution.
The expeditious and affordable justice system to poor and vulnerable section of community is one of the criteria of justice. Plato defines justice as what is due to every one should not be denied. According to him, justice is the mother of all virtues.
If justice is expensive and delayed, justice is eventually denied. The courts are unable to dispose of their cases within a reasonable time, much to the constraint of resources. Disposal of cases take a long time.
Experts believe that certain measures and remedies are necessary to improve upon the present justice system to meet the needs of poor. One of the ideas recently floated is the efficacy of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system. In Bangladesh there is enough skilled persons who have intensively worked on ADR system. Inexpensive and speedy justice system needs to be introduced in rural areas so that poor gets proper justice under laws of the country.
Another fact is often poor people are not aware of their legal rights, especially rural women. Dissemination of legal rights constitutes another facets of justice. To be able to justice to poor, they need to know their legal rights. This is very important because if they are not aware of their legal rights, they will not be able to pursue redress for wrongs done to them.
Public Interest Litigation
Justice is often meted out through the public interest litigation. Public interest litigation means litigation in the interest of public. The rationale of public interest litigation is to break through any apparent existing legal, technical or procedural constraints in providing justice to an individual or class or community who are prevented from bringing a claim before the court of law.
In Bangladesh, public interest litigation are increasingly playing an important role since the case in Mohiuddin Farooque vs Bangladesh (DLR: 1997) was decided. In that case, a non-governmental organization filed a suit to protect and preserve natural environment on behalf of a section of community and won the case in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
Conclusion
The observance of International Justice Day will remind of the essential features of justice and also as to the means of providing justice to poor and needy.
Justice has to be done under the laws. If laws are flawed, justice cannot be done. International justice involves the application of ideas which have been explored in the contexts of domestic laws.
In 1945, the world's nations and peoples sought to build a new world through the UN. In 2003, the most powerful nation abandoned its obligations under the UN Charter and waged war in Iraq that was termed "illegal" by the UN Secretary General.
International justice is in a state of crisis for peoples of Palestinian territory, Kashmir, Uzbekistan, Chechnya and in Darfur (Sudan). Let me conclude what English novelist Charles Dickens in 1859 wrote in, A Tale of Two Cities, at a time of great change in Europe, after the French Revolution (1789):
" It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, …it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us."
The above message of Dickens seems to apply at the dawn of the 21st century that is another period of great change. International Justice has a vital role to play in bringing stability in international order. The present century is incomparably richer than before. Yet it is a world of extraordinary poverty and deprivation. On this Day, we all hope that international justice can bring some sense of equality of treatment among all human beings.
The author is Former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.
