Human Dignity and Human Rights

Human Dignity and Human Rights
Author: Pablo Gilabert
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2018-11-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192562134

Human dignity: social movements invoke it, several national constitutions enshrine it, and it features prominently in international human rights documents. But what is human dignity, why is it important, and what is its relationship to human rights? This book offers a sophisticated and comprehensive defence of the view that human dignity is the moral heart of human rights. First, it clarifies the network of concepts associated with dignity. Paramount within this network is a core notion of human dignity as an inherent, non-instrumental, egalitarian, and high-priority normative status of human persons. People have this status in virtue of their valuable human capacities rather than as a result of their national origin and other conventional features. Second, it shows how human dignity gives rise to an inspiring ideal of solidaristic empowerment, which calls us to support people's pursuit of a flourishing life by affirming both negative duties not to block or destroy, and positive duties to protect and facilitate, the development and exercise of the valuable capacities at the basis of their dignity. The most urgent of these duties are correlative to human rights. Third, this book illustrates how the proposed dignitarian approach allows us to articulate the content, justification, and feasible implementation of specific human rights, including contested ones, such as the rights to democratic political participation and to decent labour conditions. Finally, this book's dignitarian approach helps illuminate the arc of humanist justice, identifying both the difference and the continuity between the basic requirements of human rights and more expansive requirements of social justice such as those defended by liberal egalitarians and democratic socialists. Human dignity is indeed the moral heart of human rights. Understanding it enables us to defend human rights as the urgent ethical and political project that puts humanity first.

Dignity Rights

Dignity Rights
Author: Erin Daly
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2020-10-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0812224752

Originally published in 2012, Dignity Rights is the first book to explore the constitutional law of dignity around the world. In it, Erin Daly shows how dignity has come not only to define specific interests like the right to humane treatment or to earn a living wage, but also to protect the basic rights of a person to control his or her own life and to live in society with others. Daly argues that, through the right to dignity, courts are redefining what it means to be human in the modern world. As described by the courts, the scope of dignity rights marks the outer boundaries of state power, limiting state authority to meet the demands of human dignity. As a result, these cases force us to reexamine the relationship between the individual and the state and, in turn, contribute to a new and richer understanding of the role of the citizen in modern democracies. This updated edition features a new preface by the author, in which she articulates how, over the past decade, dignity rights cases have evolved to incorporate the convergence of human rights and environmental rights that we have seen at the international level and in domestic constitutions.

Dignity, Rank, and Rights

Dignity, Rank, and Rights
Author: Jeremy Waldron
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2012-11-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199915431

"Delivered as a Tanner lecture on human values at the University of California, Berkeley, April 21, 2009 and April 22, 2009"--T.p. verso.

Making Human Dignity Central to International Human Rights Law

Making Human Dignity Central to International Human Rights Law
Author: Matthew McManus
Publisher: University of Wales Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2019-09-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1786834650

In recent years, there has been an explosion of writing on the topic of human dignity across a plethora of different academic disciplines. Despite this explosion of interest, there is one group – critical legal scholars – that has devoted little if any attention to human dignity. This book argues that these scholars should attend to human dignity, a concept rich enough to support a whole range of progressive ambitions, particularly in the field of international law. It synthesizes certain liberal arguments about the good of self-authorship with the critical legal philosophy of Roberto Unger and the capabilities approach to agency of Amartya Sen, to formulate a unique conception of human dignity. The author argues how human dignity flows from an individual’s capacity for self-authorship as defined by the set of expressive capabilities s/he possesses, and the book demonstrates how this conception can enrich our understanding of international human rights law by making the amplification of human dignity its fundamental orientation.

Humanity Without Dignity

Humanity Without Dignity
Author: Andrea Sangiovanni
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2017-06-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0674049217

Indivisibility and Hierarchy among Human Rights -- Notes -- References -- Index

Disability with Dignity

Disability with Dignity
Author: Linda Barclay
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2018-07-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1351017098

Philosophical interest in disability is rapidly expanding. Philosophers are beginning to grasp the complexity of disability—as a category, with respect to well-being and as a marker of identity. However, the philosophical literature on justice and human rights has often been limited in scope and somewhat abstract. Not enough sustained attention has been paid to the concrete claims made by people with disabilities, concerning their human rights, their legal entitlements and their access to important goods, services and resources. This book discusses how effectively philosophical approaches to distributive justice and human rights can support these concrete claims. It argues that these approaches often fail to lend clear support to common disability demands, revealing both the limitations of existing philosophical theories and the inflated nature of some of these demands. Moving beyond entitlements, the author also develops a unique conception of dignity, which she argues illuminates the specific indignities experienced by people with disabilities in the allocation of goods, in the common experience of discrimination and in a wide range of interpersonal interactions. Disability with Dignity offers an accessible and extended philosophical discussion of disability, justice and human rights. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the benefits and pitfalls of theories of human rights and justice for advancing justice for the disabled. It brings the moral importance of dignity to the centre, arguing that justice must be pursued in a way that preserves and promotes the dignity of people with disabilities.

Dignity Law

Dignity Law
Author: Erin Daly
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020
Genre: Civil rights
ISBN: 9780837741352

Human dignity recognizes and reflects the equal worth of each and every member of the human family, regardless of gender, race, social or political status, talents, merit, or any other differentiator. But it is also right that can be claimed, an interest that can be protected, like liberty or equality or shelter or free speech. It is now recognized in more than 150 of the world's constitutions from all regions of the world. Also, increasingly, courts around the globe are recognizing the right to dignity and applying it against governments and others to ensure that the dignity of all is respected. This unique book aims to provide an introduction to dignity rights, including what they are (or are not), how they are embodied constitutionally around the globe, and how courts interpret and apply them (or don't). This book includes selected texts showing constitutionally embedded dignity rights around the globe, an overview which maps dignity law, and units on introduction to dignity law; dignity and identity; living with dignity; protecting the dignity of people with particular vulnerabilities; and participatory dignity, along with a conclusion and index.--Publisher.

Health, Rights and Dignity

Health, Rights and Dignity
Author: Christian Erk
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2013-05-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3110319713

The idea that there is such a thing as a human right to health has become pervasive. It has not only been acknowledged by a variety of international law documents and thus entered the political realm but is also defended in academic circles. Yet, despite its prominence the human right to health remains something of a mystery - especially with respect to its philosophical underpinnings. Addressing this unfortunate and intellectually dangerous insufficiency, this book critically assesses the stipulation that health is a human right which - as international law holds - derives from the inherent dignity of the human person. Scrutinising the concepts underlying this stipulation (health, rights, dignity), it shall conclude that such right cannot be upheld from a philosophical perspective.

Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights

Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights
Author: Rowan Cruft
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 859
Release: 2015-04-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0191002917

What makes something a human right? What is the relationship between the moral foundations of human rights and human rights law? What are the difficulties of appealing to human rights? This book offers the first comprehensive survey of current thinking on the philosophical foundations of human rights. Divided into four parts, this book focuses firstly on the moral grounds of human rights, for example in our dignity, agency, interests or needs. Secondly, it looks at the implications that different moral perspectives on human rights bear for human rights law and politics. Thirdly, it discusses specific and topical human rights including freedom of expression and religion, security, health and more controversial rights such as a human right to subsistence. The final part discusses nuanced critical and reformative views on human rights from feminist, Kantian and relativist perspectives among others. The essays represent new and canonical research by leading scholars in the field. Each section is structured as a set of essays and replies, offering a comprehensive analysis of different positions within the debate in question. The introduction from the editors will guide researchers and students navigating the diversity of views on the philosophical foundations of human rights.