Why Dignity Rights Matter

Abstract

Human dignity encapsulates the notion that every person has equal worth. This simple but profound concept has two elements. First, each person – every member of the human family – has value; no one can be dismissed, ignored, mistreated, or abused as if their humanity means nothing. Dignity means that each person’s humanity means something and has worth. Each person has a right to live as if his or her life matters and to be treated “as a person.” And second, each person’s worth is equal to every other person’s. No one’s life is more important than any other person’s. If each person’s right to agency, to self-development, to choose one’s life course is the same as every other’s, then no one can determine another person’s choices, treat another as an object, or treat a person as if his or her life does not matter. Despite our differences, in our humanity, we are all equal. It is in dignity that we are united.

Keywords: dignity rights, human dignity, dignity, comparative constitutionalism, dignity law