Claim: Social justice is invoked today in philosophical debates about similarities among human beings.

Social justice is the fair and just relation between the individual and society . This is measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth , opportunities for personal activity and social privileges . In Western as well as in older Asian cultures , the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fulfill their societal roles and receive what was their due from society . In the current global grassroots movements for social justice , the emphasis has been on the breaking of barriers for social mobility , the creation of safety nets and economic justice .   Social justice assigns rights and duties in the institutions of society , which enables people to receive the basic benefits and burdens of cooperation . The relevant institutions often include taxation , social insurance , public health , public school , public services , labour law and regulation of markets , to ensure fair distribution of wealth , and equal opportunity .   Interpretations that relate justice to a reciprocal relationship to society are mediated by differences in cultural traditions , some of which emphasize the individual responsibility toward society and others the equilibrium between access to power and its responsible use . Hence , social justice is invoked today while reinterpreting historical figures such as Bartolomé de las Casas , in philosophical debates about differences among human beings , in efforts for gender , racial and social equality , for advocating justice for migrants , prisoners , the environment , and the physically and mentally disabled .   While the concept of social justice can be traced through the theology of Augustine of Hippo and the philosophy of Thomas Paine , the term `` social justice '' became used explicitly from the 1840s . A Jesuit priest named Luigi Taparelli is typically credited with coining the term , and it spread during the revolutions of 1848 with the work of Antonio Rosmini-Serbati . In the late industrial revolution , progressive American legal scholars began to use the term more , particularly Louis Brandeis and Roscoe Pound . From the early 20th century it was also embedded in international law and institutions ; the preamble to establish the International Labour Organization recalled that `` universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice . '' In the later 20th century , social justice was made central to the philosophy of the social contract , primarily by John Rawls in A Theory of Justice -LRB- 1971 -RRB- . In 1993 , the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action treats social justice as a purpose of human rights education .