Despite its centrality to human rights, human dignity is an unclear and contested concept. It can be understood as ‘the freedom to be and become the person one chooses, which happens in and through a social context’. In this description, Jill Marshall proposes an empowerment understanding of human dignity, in which people can navigate their […]
Reproductive Governance in the Twenty-First Century Reproductive governance has emerged as a crucial arena of contestation in the twenty-first century, encompassing questions of gender identity, the relationship between science and religion, the limits of intervention upon the female body, and the status of the unborn. Biomedical advances and governmental policies continually challenge seemingly settled principles, […]
Across the world, judges have been instrumental in making human dignity happen[1]. They have bridged the gap between the solemn promise of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards […]
While the first post-independence leaders like Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo articulated human dignity as the moral and political foundation of Nigeria, the translation of this vision into enforceable law only emerged gradually. From Africa’s early champion of human rights to a nation marked by authoritarian control, Nigerians continue to face widespread human rights abuses […]
The post-colonial Nigerian society is built on a promise of human dignity made in 1960 by the first president of independent Nigeria, Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe, and repeated in the 1979 and 1999 constitutions and the 1981 African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights. As argued in this blog, the promise, however, has yet to come […]
The 8th March marks International Women’s Day, a day on which the world comes together to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights promises that ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights […]’. And that includes women […]
In Minneapolis, a nationwide migrant crackdown led to masses of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers being sent to the city, with protests met by tear gas and stun grenades as the mayor described the city as being invaded by federal agents. This scene is mirrored halfway across the world in Kashmir, where the […]
Over thirty-five years after its establishment, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe[1] has become a central reference point in transnational constitutionalism. Established in 1990 to assist States emerging from authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe, it has evolved into a global constitutional actor with a distinctive capacity to articulate and diffuse standards of […]
The case of Evans v UK (2007)sheds light on a crucial aspect of human reproduction and updates the foundational commitment of the UDHR that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights’ (emphasis added). This post argues that human dignity is the foundation of consent to assisted procreation, but the […]
One of the distinctive features of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is the absence of any explicit reference to human dignity in the text of the Convention itself. Human dignity is neither guaranteed as an autonomous right nor expressly mentioned in the Preamble. Nevertheless, dignity played a significant role during the travaux préparatoires […]