Thus far, the material we have studied has assumed individuals are rational actors, capable of making decisions in a societal context. These individuals are empowered and capable of engaging in self-advocacy. However, a significant number of individuals do not live in these conditions. In this unit, we consider questions of global and distributive justice in light of the most disempowered segment of society: children.
We examine two critical contexts for children: marriage and armed conflict. We can also consider this notion of advocacy, and its converse voicelessness, in light of environmental issues. We explore resource scarcity, environmental degradation, and waste distribution. The nexus of these two seemingly disparate topics – advocacy for children and the environment – is crystallized in the question: how are debates on global justice meaningful in light of those who lack access to any form of justice?
Completing this unit should take you approximately 6 hours.
Every day, we make choices about how to live. When will we get up? What tasks are most important to us to accomplish that day? Where will we go? We make our choices within the constraints imposed upon us in a variety of ways. We live in places we can afford to live, even if we might prefer a home elsewhere. We work at the jobs we could attain the education or training for, even if we would rather spend our days doing something else. We go to work, the store, and the doctor based on what we can afford, where we are required to be, and countless other factors.
Theorists sometimes suppose humans possess perfect rationality and that everyone has equal opportunity and knowledge regarding their options in life, but that is not the reality most of us live in. This section introduces some basic ideas of power, what it means to be empowered, and how people can be oppressed.
This chapter defines oppression and power and describes how they interact in people's daily lives and lived experiences. As you read, consider how the ideas presented relate to the problem of building a more just world. How do the authors conceptualize different kinds of power? What strategies do they present to address power inequalities and oppression? Pay special attention to the case studies presented, and think about other examples from your own life, stories you have heard from others, or the news.
Children are uniquely disempowered and vulnerable. They generally rely on others for their survival, making it possible for adults to abuse them. One form is child marriage, which provides a window into the empowerment and agency issues we explore in this unit.
Women are also often vulnerable in society because their rights and access to resources are constrained by law or custom. They can face a unique set of dangers, such as trafficking, sexual violence, and domestic abuse. They offer another example of how some populations are cut off from exercising power and agency in their everyday lives.
This chapter introduces the phenomenon of child marriage and mail order brides and explains how these practices threaten and undermine the human rights of the people involved. Pay attention to why child marriages are common in some places, and how we might begin to work more effectively to prevent them.
This article offers a case study of child marriage in India and a strategy that has helped end child marriage. Pay close attention to the challenge of enforcing laws against child marriage in areas where they are common and have roots in local traditions, and how to work around these issues.
Just as their dependence on adults can render children vulnerable to child marriage and sexual abuse, it can make it easy for adults to recruit children into armed forces. While this is a significant breach of international law, it is still common in worldwide conflicts. It is a prominent human rights issue that activists are working to combat every day. These resources provide a window into this issue and the efforts to end the use of child soldiers.
Read this chapter to learn about the phenomenon of child soldiers in wars around the world. Why are children are recruited as soldiers, and how does it impact their human rights?
This article gives a more in-depth case study of the issues presented in the previous resource by investigating the use of child soldiers in Syria. How do the specific examples relate to the broader overview that the previous chapter presented? How is the United Nations addressing this problem in Syria? What challenges does it face?
This article draws from memoirs of child soldiers who have served in conflicts in Africa. It provides a chance to read about the experience of child soldiers in their own words. How have their experiences shaped their lives? How did their time as child soldiers undermine their human rights?
In this section, we return to the question of how poverty impacts human rights. How does living in poverty affect a person's access to human rights? This issue raises questions about poor and rich countries, economic development, and class inequality. What resources are required to live a good life, and how do we determine people's access to these resources? What obligations do those who can access more resources in wealthier countries have toward people who live in poorer countries? What about people who live in wealthy countries, but still cannot access the basic resources required for life?
The United Nations created the Sustainable Development Goals to end extreme poverty, reduce inequality, and protect the planet and natural environment by 2030. This video introduces how the U.N. is working to support the right to water access around the world. Pay attention to how access to clean water plays a role in a range of other human rights.
This article offers a broad overview of water scarcity and inequality, with a case study of one community. The authors explore the challenges of implementing policy that would provide water more equally, and how a lack of clean water impacts human rights.
This article examines a key point of inequality between many rich states and poorer states: while rich states possess the technologies that allow for larger-scale production of food crops, most of the land used for farming is in poorer countries. This wealthy monopoly on technology allows wealthy countries to maintain a position of power over poorer states, which replicates the past's colonial relations. This relates to earlier questions in this course about distributive justice.
Overwhelmingly, environmental degradation, climate change, and pollution have a disproportionate impact on people of color worldwide. This is true internationally, where nonwhite countries bear the brunt of environmentally-damaging policies, and domestically, where communities of color are more likely to be affected by pollution and have limited access to resources, such as clean water. In this section, we discuss environmental justice and review several case studies to understand this obstacle to global justice better.
Read this introduction to the concept of environmental justice. Pay attention to how the negative externalities of environmental degradation are often distributed unequally. The worst impacts fall on marginalized groups.
This article provides a case study on environmental justice within Indian Country. Native tribes throughout the United States face water pollution problems that could create health problems and put their cultural traditions, often tied to water resources on and off their reservations, at risk.
This article digs into the media coverage of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. It examines how mainstream media outlets discussed the issue, failed to cover the urgency of the crisis, and failed to center the experiences of the majority-Black population of Flint.
This article begins with the activism that emerged from the NoDAPL protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline construction that threatened water sources that were essential to the Standing Rock Sioux's physical and spiritual health. The authors use this example to dig into issues of settler colonialism and environmental racism and examine how renewed indigenous activism has the potential to address environmental, social, political, and economic inequalities.
The term environmental burden of disease (EBD) describes the health problems that result from exposure to, or contact with, environmental pollutants. An example of an EBD project might be to examine rising asthma rates in public housing in the United States. Rather than address the asthma epidemic as if it emerges within a vacuum, EBD looks at how the location of public housing and their use of lead or other pollutants can interact to increase rates of asthma. The EBD approach comprehensively compares and evaluates health issues that arise from specific environmental measures.
This study assesses how air pollution can be used as an example of environmental justice in science and environmental education.
While this exercise is optional, you are strongly encouraged to complete it. This activity is designed to deepen your understanding of course material by linking such material to current events. Follow the instructions in the document. It may be beneficial to present your findings and answers to the questions by posting to the course discussion forum and responding to other students' posts.