World Day of Social Justice 2021

Posted on: 19 February 2021 by School of Law and Social Justice in Blog

Saturday 20th February 2021 is the UN’s World Day of Social Justice, and this year’s focus is on the Digital Economy and relating social justice issues.

In a year when we have had to turn to, and increase reliance on, our use of digital technology and platforms to complete our work and research within the School of Law and Social justice, we felt that this represented an opportunity to take a moment to reflect on the challenges and opportunities that the pandemic, and the necessary digitisation of our work, has created for social justice projects.

This week’s blog highlights some of the key social justice works that we have undertaken and been involved in recently. We asked our researchers and academics what their thoughts were on the new digital approaches, and the effects this has had on their social justice work, particularly in outreach and engagement.

Shawdow Pandemic

by Prof Sandra Walklate and Prof Barry Godfrey

The digital economy combined with a global pandemic has made it easier for many to work from home. However, for many women working from home has meant more juggling of work and child care and for some it means being under the constant threat of violence from their partner. Our research shows that police forces in England and Wales have stayed open for business and made innovative use of the digital world to keep women safe. These options are welcome but they are not substitutes for face to face contact with victims. Not everyone has access to the Internet or mobile phone coverage. Blending the digital with the conventional may be the future in ensuring all those who need support from the police are able to access it.

Read more on this research, here.

Lives on Hold: Our Stories Told

by Prof Helen Stalford

Children's rights, social justice and the digital environment

Whilst it may seem trite to say that the digital environment creates both risks and opportunities for children, a year of intermittent lockdown and the threats associated with Covid-19 have brought these risks and opportunities into sharp focus. At the beginning of the first lockdown, researchers from The European Children's Rights Unit produced a series of Covid-19 briefing papers, highlighting the actual and potential impacts of the pandemic on children in a range of contexts, including online protection, remote justice, access to mental health services and education and freedom of assembly.

Since then, members have secured funding for new projects to explore the longer term impacts of Covid-19 on asylum seeking children and on children’s access to Special Educational Needs and Disability provision across England. Such projects will engage online with young people and their parents who have been cut adrift by the reduction in social care, mental health services, special educational provision and legal support. The projects also involve extensive online consultation with practitioners in the social care, education and legal sectors with a view to producing a series of rapid response recommendations for legal and policy reform and redress.

This research – the methods it adopts and the issues it investigates - highlight the role of the digital environment in exposing, addressing and, indeed, compounding inequalities experienced by children. As such, the imminent publication by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child of its new General Comment on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment, could not be more timely. The General comment is the product of extensive consultation with children across nearly 30 countries (including children and young people from our own Young Person's Advisory Group) and over 100 other civil society, academic and professional stakeholders, including our own Professor Amandine Garde. It acknowledges the centrality of accessible digital resources to protecting and promoting children’s rights, whilst also offering guidance on how the many risks associated with online engagement can be averted. Importantly, the General Comment responds to the potential for the digital environment to both compound and address the persistent social and economic inequalities facing the Covid-19 generation. The challenge for us, as researchers, campaigners and advocates for children, is to nurture our own capacities and resources to respond effectively.

International Law and Human Rights Unit: Guest Speaker Series

by Prof Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou

The COVID-19 pandemic posed major challenges in many areas of life. The challenges are multiple and mostly obvious, however, the COVID-19 pandemic also created new opportunities, it has led to expedited developments in the delivery of online services, and is also an opportunity for research and education to embrace the new normal and try to explore new avenues to engage in exchange of ideas and expertise.

The International Law and Human Rights Unit organised five webinars in the first weeks of pandemic looking at the human rights implications of COVID-19. The leading academics and practitioners discussed how human rights can be protected during the pandemic, what the Council of Europe can do in these circumstances, the rights of migrants and other relevant topics. Of course, it would not be possible to invite so many experts from different parts of Europe to come to Liverpool but the online format of these events made it possible and opened them up to the audience all over the world.

The recordings of such seminars are available on the International Law and Human Rights Units YouTube channel.

Find out more about the ILHRU and events taking place, here.

Convict Lives on Cockatoo Island

by Dr Katherine Roscoe

Though there are many challenges to doing historical research remotely, I was lucky to be able to engage with public audiences in Australia without having to fly half-way across the world! I was very lucky to be able to virtually present my research on Convict Lives on Cockatoo Island to an audience of Sydney locals and academics from all over the world as part of New South Wales History Week. To be able to direct the audience to my website, where they could read the records of these prisoners first hand (and not behind a paywall!) was even better. Having a recording of the lecture online is also fantastic for accessibility and longevity - it was a real privilege when a colleague said she listened to it on her lockdown walk months later! Of course, my digital research and online engagement is only possible because I work on Australia, a wealthy nation who has led the field in digitisation of historic and archival material.

Read more on this blog, here.

Keep up to date with SLSJ

To find out more about the work that we’ve been carrying out within the School of Law and Social Justice, head to our Research page. You can keep an eye on the Events page for upcoming events, webinars and conferences that may be suitable for you.

You can head to our Twitter and Facebook pages, where we will also keep you informed about these and other resources, such as new blogs.