HUMAN DIGNITY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND TORTURE

Abstract

In its first, fundamental sense, human dignity means something that is given, that cannot be lost, something to be respected. The human person has dignity simply because she is capable of morality. In this sense dignity is an end in itself, something not to be acted against (e.g. the health of a healthy person). In another sense, dignity is something to be promoted, realised. In this sense it means a life (well-being) that befits a person as an end in itself. Recent interpretations often reduce human dignity to this second sense, to some commission or commitment, namely to care for a humane existence of one's fellow human beings. In this sense, one can only violate the dignity of others (by not caring for them or violating them), but not act against one's own dignity. In this interpretation the central (Kantian and Christian) idea of an end in itself is lost.