JUSTICE commentary

The right to dignity recognizes the intrinsic and equal worth of all human beings. As such, all persons are entitled to be treated as worthy of respect and concern. [1]

 

The concept of intrinsic worth captures the idea that each human life has value, independent of things like social status or economic productivity, etc. The idea of equal worth stresses that this value is the same in all human beings, regardless of their other characteristics such as sex, race, ethnic or social origin, age, disability and so on.

 

The principle of respect for human dignity has been the basis for all national [2] or international [3] human rights instruments, typically as part of the preamble or an objective. For instance, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights refers in its preamble to “inherent dignity” and to “the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family” [4]. The Charter, on the other hand, is one of the few texts that enshrines the principle of dignity in its first article.

 

Although dignity as a concept seems relatively straightforward, it’s less clear as a legal principle giving rise to specific obligations. Nonetheless, it is relevant to situations where individuals are subject to state treatment and control, e.g. conditions in prisons, psychiatric institutions, state housing, care homes for the elderly, immigration detention centres, etc. In general, any of the following conditions are considered to violate human dignity [5]:

 

§         torture;

§         abject destitution;

§         humiliating or degrading treatment; [6]

§         cruel and unusual punishment;

§         egregious discrimination on the basis of sex, race, etc; and

§         flagrant denials of fundamental rights; e.g. indefinite extra-judicial detention

 

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