“Humanity without Dignity” is the title of a book recently published with Harvard University Press. The author, Andrea Sangiovanni, claims it would be much easier to build a consensus on human rights without resorting to a fuzzy concept like dignity. His criticism is only one example illustrating a widespread feeling that human dignity doesn’t have much, if anything, to add to the understanding of human rights. Some critics go even further by suspecting that human dignity may actually cause damage to human rights. Not only is the concept difficult to grasp; it may even become the entry point for moralistic and paternalistic attitudes, which in turn may jeopardize dearly won accomplishments, especially in the era of women’s rights and reproductive health.
The presenters of this little workshop, Tore Lindholm and Heiner Bielefeldt, take a different approach. We are both convinced that human dignity plays an important und indeed foundational role for human rights, just along the lines of the 1948 UDHR, whose preamble starts with a profession of “the inherent dignity … of all members of the human family”. Like many other core concepts in human rights, the notion of human dignity is exposed to very different interpretations, including some grave “misperceptions” (at least in our view). That is why we first have to lay out an interpretation of what human dignity can mean within the secular framework of secular human rights standards. When defining our understanding of human dignity, we will also try to respond to some typical objections. Subsequently, we will point out why, in our view, the concept of dignity plays an indispensable role in human rights thinking and practice. After the two presentations of 20 minutes each, the floor will be open for a broad discussion.
Everyone is cordially invited to attend, participate, listen, speak up, express their convictions, voice their doubts, be polite and polemical, and come up with own positions and counter-positions on the (non-)significance of human dignity in the context of international human rights.