Human Dignity and Judicial Interpretation of Human Rights

In legal systems, based on Roman law, dignity was seen as a right of personality and status, and criminal and civil remedies were frequently provided if dignity in this sense was infringed.
Dignity
1. Dignity is becoming commonplace in the legal texts providing for human rights protections in many jurisdictions.
  1. Used frequently in judicial decisions
2. In the international sphere, this concept of dignity was frequently used to refer to the status of sovereign states and, by extension, to the status of ambassadorial and consular staff serving their countries abroad.
3. The idea of dignitas came to be used as the way of distinguishing between Man and other creatures
4. The subsequent development of dignity drew substantially on the importance of Man as having the capacity of reason, whilst dropping the religious elements of humanist writings such as those of Pico
5. Human dignity
  1. Kant’s understanding of human dignity required that individuals should be treated as ends and not simply as means to an end
    1. The father of the modern concept of human dignity ’
  2. The text of the Bill of Rights of the European Movement of May 1948, provided in Article 1: ‘ [a]ll men are born free and equal in dignity ’ , 81 and in Article 29 that ‘ every one has a right that his dignity and health shall be preserved through the provision of a diet, of clothing, of housing and of medical requirements up to a standard corresponding to the resources of the European Union in relation to vital necessities ’ .
  3. Human Dignity in the UN Charter and the UDHR
    1. ‘ [a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
  4. Human Dignity in International Humanitarian Law Texts
    1. During the 19th century to dignity in national provisions relating to the treatment of prisoners
  5. Dignity and International Human Rights Texts after the 1940s
    1. By 1986, dignity had become so central to United Nations ’ conceptions of human rights that the UN General Assembly provided, in its guidelines for new human rights instruments, that such instruments should be ‘ of fundamental character and derive from the inherent dignity and worth of the human person
    2. The concept of dignity is vague and open to interpretation and gives judges discretion; in that it does not differ from all human rights obligations and rights
6. In William Wordsworth’s 1805 Prelude , the concept of the ‘ dignity of individual man ’ is also used, as a counterpoint to the idea that the value of Man is to be judged only by economic capacity and contribution
7. In Europe and in Latin America, dignity came to be particularly associated with the abolition of slavery
8. First half of the 20th century, dignity began to enter legal, and particularly constitutional and international legal
All human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity
When we talk about autonomy, it refers to individual freedom or one's right to make decisions without being coerced.
1. It is the concept of social, political and ethical morals that give individuals the rational right to make their own informed choices.
He term "human rights" is one that Eleanor Roosevelt brought into widespread use. Previously these rights were called the "rights of man" (or sometimes, "natural rights"). She chose "human" as a more inclusive modifier.
1. Notice that is not "because they are human." Being human is neither necessary nor sufficient to capture the sense of what characteristics qualify one for "human rights."
The Declaration of Independence clearly rests on the assumption that human rights exist: all persons are created equal, for all are endowed with certain "inalienable rights." In the strongest sense, to say that a right is inalienable means that it cannot be taken away by others, traded away by the person, or forfeited as a result of the person's actions.
1. it means that the right cannot be taken or traded away, but it could be forfeited through the person's actions.
  1. Rights that may be removed are called alienable.
There is another important distinction between types of rights that cuts across the other distinctions considered so far.
1. On the one hand, some rights require of others only that they not interfere with or restrict the rights-holder. These are called negative rights or liberties. On the other hand, there are positive rights, which are claims to receive something. To respect another's negative right requires only that you not interfere with the person's exercise of the right in question, and not that you provide her with particular opportunities to practice this right.
Differences in the conceptions of dignity in judicial interpretation
1. WeightandStatusofDignity There are significant variations between jurisdictions on the legal status and weight of human dignity.There is, according to the jurisprudence of the courts, no way to balance other legal interests, be they of other individuals or of the community, with the dignity of a person.
  1. The principle of proportionality does not come into play as long as an intrusion upon human dignity has been established.
2. Individualistic Versus Communitarian Conceptions of Dignity
  1. An important distinction could be identified between the use of dignity to express a communitar- ian ideal and one that was much more focussed on the role of dignity in furthering individual autonomy, in the sense of advancing individual liberty based upon the choice of the individual.
Pluralism and Relativism
1. Dignity may be a constitutionally protected principle, but it is not an inviolable or a supreme principle.
2. Lord Hoffmann ‘ of course we share a common humanity. … Nevertheless … the specific answers, the degree to which weight is given to one desirable objective rather than another, will be culturally determined. Different communities will, through their legislature and judges, adopt the answers which they think suit them. ´
3. It seems like dignity has different meaning all over the world and everyone put whatever they want in their laws
Rodrigo Díaz Infante A01651360
Paola Vásquez Méndez A01652206
Luis Roberto Ramírez Méndez A01652009

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Human Dignity and Judicial Interpretation of Human Rights

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