Human dignity

Bits and pieces for educational purposes

Generated by the project team in 2021

Erasmus+ school project “May ICT be with you”

CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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Fundamental values

The motto of the EU:

United in diversity

• Human dignity
• Human rights
• Freedom
• Democracy
• Equality
• The rule of law

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Meaning

• Middle English: from Old French ’dignete’, from Latin ’dignitas’, (worthy);
• Everyday life: all people are valuable and worthy of respect;
• In politics: to critique the treatment of oppressed and vulnerable groups and peoples.

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Violating human dignity

• Humiliation: acts that humiliate or diminish the self-worth of a person or a group;
• Instrumentalization or objectification: treating a person as an instrument or as means to achieve some other goal;
• Degradation: acts that degrade the value of human beings;
• Dehumanization: acts that strip a person or a group of their human characteristics.

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948;
• consists of 30 articles;
• not legally binding but applied in customary international law
• 524 translations.

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Article 01

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

Article 02

“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

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Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”

EU charter of fundamental rights

• guarantees the right to human dignity, which ‘is inviolable [and] must be respected and protected’;
• allows individuals to claim violations of their human dignity in court;
• mostly related to the rights of asylum seekers and people under international protection; and
• protects against the development of technology, which may challenge what ‘human’ means.

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What does human dignity mean to you?