Human Dignity as a Normative Concept

Abstract

The "dignity of the human person" and "human dignity" are phrases that have come to be used as an expression of a basic value accepted in a broad sense by all peoples. Human dignity appears in the Preamble of the Charter of the United Na- tions as an ideal that "we the peoples of the United Nations" are "determined" to achieve. The words are part of the second paragraph of the Preamble, which reads in full as follows: "to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small." The term dignity is also included in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." In some subsequent instruments, we find the expression "respect for the inherent dignity of the human person." For example, the International Cov- enant on Civil and Political Rights provides in Article 10 that "[all1 persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person." A similar provision is found in the American Convention on Human Rights (Article 5). The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states in Article 13 that "education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity." The Helsinki Accords in Principle VII affirm that the participating states will promote the effective exercise of human rights and freedoms, "all of which derive from the inherent dignity of the human person." References to human dignity are to be found in various resolutions and declarations of international bodies.' National constitutions and proclama- tions, especially those recently adopted, include the ideal or goal of human dignity in their references to human rights.' Political leaders, jurists and phi- losophers have increasingly alluded to the dignity of the human person as abasic ideal so generally recognized as to require no independent support. It has acquired a resonance that leads it to be invoked widely as a legal and moral ground for protest against degrading and abusive treatment. No other ideal seems so clearly accepted as a universal social good.