On Common Grounds: Justice, Human Rights and Survival

Source: (2006) In Anthony J. W. Taylor, ed., Justice as a Basic Human Need. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Pp. 113-133.

“This chapter considers social justice as a cultural universal and fundamental necessity for human survival. It argues that cross-culturally, justice and human rights are inextricably linked, and that their increasing denial is the fundamental cause of growing political violence — including war, state terror, and international terrorism — in the world today. It applies the relative justice theory of political violence to cultural conceptions of justice, and argues that the human experience of injustice is universally experienced as oppression, and that this inevitably leads to resistance and conflict. It concludes that where there is no justice, there will be violence, and that human rights social justice, and survival have finally met on common ground.” (excerpt)