Jurisprudence on dignity in the UK is limited, and the issues it has raised so far are just the tip of the iceberg, but lawyers are learning to apply the concept in court in a growing number of situations. However, the definition of human dignity in legal terms is notoriously difficult, also because it has only been used in human rights law since the end of the Second World War. In response to the atrocities of war, the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Rights stated that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” under Article 1. Since then, human dignity has become a conceptual tool for rethinking human rights and democracy. Dignity is therefore closely linked to humanity, freedom and equality. We are born with dignity and it is not a quality or status that can be gained or lost. This commitment to dignity has been supported by the vast majority of codified constitutions – especially those adopted after dictatorships – in continental Europe, which have placed it at the heart of their democracy and at the forefront of their human rights regulations. In everyday modern language, the word refers to “respect” and “status,” and it is often used to indicate that someone is not receiving an adequate level of respect or even treating themselves with proper self-respect. There is also a long history of the particular philosophical use of this term.
However, it is rarely defined directly in political, legal and scientific discussions. International proclamations have so far left dignity indefinite,[4][5] and scientific commentators, such as those who oppose genetic research and algae, cite dignity as a reason, but are ambiguous about its application. [6] Human dignity is so important in law today that it is recognized as a fundamental value and legal claim in international law, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) to the Sustainable Development Goals (2015) and in most constitutions around the world, as well as by the American Bar Association as the foundation of a just rule of law. Since it deals with the value and quality of human life and how people interact with each other, it is an integral part of all aspects of law, both public and private. AbA`s Dignity in Practice project includes essays written by Delaware Law School students on dignity in corporate law, bankruptcy law, labor law, intellectual property, real estate law, and criminal proceedings. In the United Kingdom, the difficulty of defining dignity also stems from the fact that it does not appear explicitly in the 1950 ECHR and is therefore also absent from the HRA. However, the European Court of Human Rights has recognized that the protection of human dignity and freedom is “the essence of the ECHR” and that the protection of dignity is a matter of civilization (SW v. UK, 1995).
Human dignity has thus become a concept entirely elaborated by judges with an uncertain normative basis and definition, usually somewhere between the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment (under Article 3 of the ECHR) and the right to privacy (Article 8 of the ECHR). According to Arthur Schopenhauer, dignity is the opinion of others about our worth and the subjective definition of dignity is our fear of this opinion of others. [28] The legal definition of dignity is becoming increasingly clear and strengthened at European level, as evidenced by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (annexed to the Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force in December 2009). Although the Charter was not adopted by the United Kingdom, English judges began to view it as a guide and inspiration for defining human dignity. The Charter makes the protection of dignity an explicit obligation of the EU (Article 1) and contains the clearest textual definition of dignity in Title 1, including the right to life (Article 2), the right to physical and mental integrity (Article 3), the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 4) and the prohibition of slavery. Forced labour and trafficking in human beings (Article 5). Everyone wants their dignity to be respected and protected. We understand this concept intuitively. But what does dignity mean for law and human rights? In the UK, dignity is an emerging legal concept, a complement to the human rights used to protect humanity and the identity of individuals. As such, it lies within the wider human rights landscape of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which was introduced into UK law by the Human Rights Act (HRA) of 1998.
Dan Egonsson, followed by Roger Wertheimer, argued that while it is conventional for humans to equate dignity with “human being” (“Egonsson`s Standard Attitude,” Wertheimer`s “Standard Belief”), people in general also matter something other than mere humanity in their idea of dignity. [26] [27] Egonsson suggested that an entity must be both human and alive to merit an attribution of dignity, while Wertheimer notes, “It is not a defining truth that people have human status. » Subscribe to America`s largest dictionary and get thousands of additional definitions and advanced search – ad-free! These provisions provide a broad and inclusive definition of human dignity. For example, the protection of “physical and mental integrity” will certainly cover a much wider range of situations than extreme and – fortunately rarer – cases of inhuman and degrading treatment and torture under Article 3 of the ECHR, as currently protected by UK law under the HRA. Similarly, the obligation to protect dignity at work under Articles 5 and 31 combined (“Every worker has the right to working conditions that respect his or her health, safety and dignity”) goes much further than the extremely rare cases of forced labour or anti-slavery and anti-harassment legislation. While dignity protects every human being equally and is an intrinsic characteristic from birth, the Charter refers in particular to older persons, who are recognised as having “the right to live in dignity and independence and to participate in social and cultural life” (Article 25), a concern of a growing number of people in the United Kingdom.
