What makes a Just Society?

Charity or Justice? Equity or Equality? Sabrina shares the lessons learnt from the BUILD core Just Society workshop.

I attended the High Resolves: Just Society Workshop as part of the BUILD Program. This topic gave me a lot of insight into the inequalities faced globally and how difficult it can be to allocate resources. It was also really useful to distinguish between charity and justice. I particularly enjoyed exploring how charity is essential to solving problems in the short-term and how targeting the root of the problem is more important for long-term solutions and sustainability.

It is really easy to donate to charities around the world and walk away feeling like you’ve “done your bit”. I think it’s really important for people to try and take it a step further and see if they can do something that works to actually eradicating the problem. For example, while donating money to homeless shelters will help the homeless, it doesn’t really go to ensuring they are not homeless forever or to ensuring other people don’t become homeless in the future. We can always dig a little deeper, think more critically and do more.

“To be an effective global leader, I think it is really important to be aware of social issues and the barriers that prevent them from being addressed.”

Sabrina

This workshop was able to use simple scenarios to highlight the challenges in creating a just society for all. A lack of access to resources is present in all communities, though at varying levels. We had some really stimulating discussion in relation to minimum access to education. While we all agreed that education is an important factor to future opportunities, we came to conclude that not all individuals will have the same priority.

My main takeaway from the workshop was the importance of equity over equality. While everyone is entitled to the same resources, specific circumstances should be considered to ensure everyone has a fair and equal opportunity to participate in their community.

Sabrina Bhuiyan
Bachelor of Economics Bachelor of Laws

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