World Day of Social Justice supports fair globalisation

One of its basic principles is the fair dispersal of goods. Social Justice is the basic condition for peace and respect between the nations on a connected world.

It focuses on certain themes about injustice on our planet which should be fought. Examples for such injustice between nations are human trafficking, forced labour or rights at work. A fair globalisation must include fair trade and working conditions to avoid human exploitation and frustrations. The major forms of violence against children in Tanzania are: child labour, early child marriage and child trafficking.

We must therefore have adequate laws to protect women and children from violence and they should be put in place and enforced. Education on the unacceptability of gender-based violence is key: with messages tailored to audiences of men, women and children. Opinion shapers have a duty to speak out against gender based violence, rather than ignore it or claim it as acceptable and something to be endured.

Mob justice is a social public health and legal problem, constituting about 13 per cent of all the forensic autopsy cases performed at the department of forensic medicine. The youths are the most culprits. While stoning and burning are the most commonly employed modes of killing, robbery is the major reason for the killing.

When the legal system cannot be trusted due either to feeling of social inequalities or corruption, it is not surprising to find that angry and disenfranchised people resort to mob justice when frustrated.

Many law enforcers in Tanzania have failed to deliver and people have to live with the fear that they are not well protected. Corruption has affected the police department, the courts and other government agencies.

Therefore when a suspected criminal is apprehended and is handed over to the police, many are able to either negotiate their way out using the intricacies of the law or through corruption. This further alienates the public who think that the police and courts are favouring the criminals.

The public therefore thinks that it is counterproductive to handover such criminals to the system of justice and therefore take the law into their own hands. Another reason for the apparent increase in crimes such as robbery and stealing is the increasing level of unemployment due to retrenchments. The gap between the rich and the poor is also widening.

It can be said therefore, that mob justice is a manifestation of a failing judicial system and unequal economic system that favours those who are already rich. This leads social groups to develop and dispense out their own system of social justice.

These youth in most cases fail to achieve their goals and dreams such as employment and financial independence and therefore resolve to commit crimes resulting in a high crime rate and more incidences of mob justice.