Social equality

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Equal Rights redirects here. for the motto, see Equal Rights (motto)

Social equality is a social state of affairs in which certain different people have the same status in a certain respect, at the very least in voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of property rights as well as the access to education, health care and other social securities.

There are different forms of equality, depending on the persons and social situations in question. For example, one may consider equality of the sexes in opportunities for employment; the people in question are men and women (contrasted) and the social situation is the search for a job. As another example, equal opportunity refers to the idea that all people should start out in life from the same platform (i.e. all should have equal opportunities in life, regardless of where they were born or who their parents were). A fight for social and legal equality was seen during the sixties in the United States in the Civil Rights Movement.

Social equality (from UNICEF's programme perspective) implies providing the equal "good start in life" for all people (children), which enables people to realize their full potential.