Social Justice, Human Rights, Deliberate Action: An Analytical Review of the Literature in Seven Social Justice Thematic Areas

This article presents an analytical review of contemporary social justice themes, drawing on an extensive literature survey. The review demonstrates that social justice is a central theme in many contemporary social struggles and demands for rights and justice. It further identifies key thematic issues, their normative foundations, and the principles of social justice, exploring how these are elaborated across different issue areas where social justice is a core concern. In several cases, social justice is also presented as a cross-cutting concern and conceptual approach. An overall literature survey identified 40 topical-thematic issue areas in which social justice is evoked and often thoroughly discussed. This article provides an overview of how social justice is addressed in seven of those 40 thematic topics. It presents summary analytical reviews of the literature on social justice considerations and dimensions in various arenas, including Human Rights, Decent Work, Health, Housing, the Digital Divide, Peacemaking/Small Arms Limitations, and Sustainable Development. These summaries review the connection between each topic and social justice and conclude with recommendations for how the social justice dimensions of each topic could be integrated into ongoing international policy processes, including the Global Coalition for Social Justice and the Second World Summit for Social Development, to be held in November 2025, and the implementation of their outcomes.