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The dilemma between rights of individual and interests of the community (Part 1)

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What is known by the name of justice in common parlance relates to the settlement of disputes through judicial bodies? (Part one)

By Mading Abraham Majur, Juba, South Sudan

Abel Alier and Atem Yaak Atem
Hon. Abel Alier and Atem Yaak Atem in Nairobi, Kenya, 2005, at the signing of the CPA

Tuesday, August 28, 2018 (PW) — It is in this respect that this term has a positive character and by desirable quality of which the law of the state and the justice of the courts become very close affairs. However, with the infiltration of democracy into social and economic spheres, the meaning of justice has expanded itself so as to cover all ambles of human life.

A new awareness has developed that informs that the rights of an individual should be reasonably constrained in the wider interests of his community so that the ends of social justice are properly achieved.

In other words, it is widely standard that the well being of society depends on the coordination and reconciliation between the rights of individual and interests of the community. Not only this, if there is a conflict between the two, the latter should prevail over the former, consequently facts in the issue of justice in social, economic and political spheres. 

First of all, we take the case of social justice in our country does not balance between an individual’s rights and social control to ensure the fulfillment of the legitimate expectations of the individual under the existing laws and assures him benefits there under and protection in case of any violation or encroachment on his rights, consistent with the unity of the nation and needs of the society.

Without doubt, the idea of social justice requires the sacrifice of certain rights of an individual at the altar of general interest. However, viewed in a wider perspective, the idea of social justice not only aims at the proper reconciliation of the interest of an individual with the over-all interest of the community or prevalence of the latter over the former in the event of any conflict, it also constitute ‘’an essential part of the multifaceted of social change for which something may have to be sacrificed for greater good of the nation.

It is evident that the concept of social justice is a very extensive word that covers within it fold everything pertaining to the rule of general interest ranging from the protection of the interests of the minorities to the obliteration of poverty and illiteracy. It is not merely related to the observance of the principle of equality before law and independence of judiciary as we find in the developed countries of West.

It is also related to the eradication of gigantic social evils like those disease, unemployment and starvation which have their stigmatic expression on the face of developing countries. Moreover, all this is also related to the bankruptcy of vested interests that frustrate the achievement of common good and have their interest in the maintenance of the status quo to their own advantage.

As such, in the backward countries of the world, the idea of social justice enjoins upon the state to make concentrated efforts for the improvement of the lot of the browbeaten and weaker sections of the community. Its area widens itself so as to cover the economic domain of a people’s life for the obvious reason that it demands non-exploitation of the working class

The author, Mading Abraham Majur, can be reach via majur20155@gmail.com

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