• Donnelly, J. (2019). The concept of human rights. Routledge.

United Nations Declaration of Human Rights 1948“Whereas recognition of the inherent

dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the
foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world Human rights are at the core of
international law and international relations. They represent basic values common to all
cultures, and must be respected by countries worldwide. Human rights are inalienable
fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because he or she is a
human being. The principle of equality and non-discrimination, as stipulated in Article 2
of the Declaration, is the cornerstone of the human rights protection system, enshrined in
every human rights instrument, stipulating that;

“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. 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.

• Gilabert, P. (2019). Human dignity and human rights. Oxford University

Press, USA.

I take the idea of human dignity to constitute the moral heart of a universalist ethics and
politics commited to supporting the autonomy and wellbeing of every human being
regardless of their geographical location or position in existing social structures.
Human dignity is a normative status that all individuals have equally, inherenthly and
which gives rise to strong requierements that are normally overriding when compared to
other.

aLLEN BUCHANAN HAS STATE that it is a mistake to assume that identifying a moral
human right to x provides by itself sufficient condition ofr imposing a legal human right to
x.

The idea of human dignity addresses the reflective part and the articulation of rights the
contractualist part.
 • Zdravkova, K. (2019). Reconsidering human dignity in the new era. New
Ideas in Psychology, 54, 112-117.

Dignity is one of those human values, which have dramatically changed in the last few
decades. It is a religious, philosophical, ethical and legislative value, occasionally
associated with the ideas of inviolability or sanctity of life, suggesting protection of the
sentient life of all the living beings, because they are holy and worthy of life (Bayertz,
2012). (Nordenfelt, 2004). Nordenfelt recognizes four different kinds of dignity: “the dignity
of merit, the dignity of moral or existential stature, the dignity of identity and the universal
human dignity”. Protection of human dignity is correlated with the preservation of human
rights and freedoms (Andorno, 2014). Post WWII world had an intention to create a
society which respects and appreciates dignity, values and human status. The equilibrium
established by the end of the 20th century has been obliterated with the rise of new
technologies and their pervasiveness
in the highly computerized world we now live in, still too many adults are computer
illiterate. In the recent study in OECD countries, it was estimated that approximately one
fourth of adult population can't use computers at all (Outlook, 2013). Due to their lack of
technological proficiency, they usually lose the opportunity to compete for the jobs they
are interested in, work more and less effectively, and consequently, their wages are lower.
On a contrary, a very interesting and exhaustive survey made by James Bessen deduced
that although the employment of lower-wage jobs decreased, the higher-wage jobs
increased, preserving, or even increasing the employment rates in the whole world

• Resta, G. (2019). " How to Do Things with Words". Three Uses of Human
Dignity. Rivista di filosofia del diritto, 8(1), 67-80.

Thre main issues a) the juridification of dignity b) the different functions of dignity as a
fundamental right and c) the conflict between dignity and liberty

• Schulman, A. (2009). Bioethics and the question of uman dignity. Notre

Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.

Human dignity—is it a useful concept in bioethics, one that sheds important light on the
whole range of bioethical issues, from em- bryo research and assisted reproduction, to
biomedical enhancement, to care of the disabled and the dying? Or is it, on the contrary,
a useless concept—at best a vague substitute for other, more precise notions, at worst a
mere slogan that camouflages unconvincing arguments and un- articulated biases?

The tangles sources of human dignity

If human dignity seems a malleable concept of uncertain application in bioethics, that is
partly because the idea of human dignity comes to bioethics from several disparate
sources. Each of these sources con- tributes something of value for bioethics; yet each
source also brings its own peculiar difficulties to the application of the concept of hu- man
dignity to bioethical controversies. At least four such sources of human dignity seem worth
mentioning:

a. Classical antiquity: The word “dignity” comes to us, via the Latin dignus and
dignitas, from Greek and Roman antiquity, in whose literature it means something
like “worthiness for honor and esteem.”
b. b. Biblical religion: Another powerful source of a broader, shared notion of human
dignity is the Biblical account of man as “made in the image of God.”
c. c. Kantian moral philosophy: A daring attempt to set universal hu- man dignity on
a strictly rational foundation was made in the 18th century by the German
philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant’s primary purpose was to show how moral
freedom and responsibility could still be possible in a world governed by the laws
of mathematical physics. For Kant, in agreement with the Stoics, dignity is the
intrin- sic worth that belongs to all human beings and to no other beings in the
natural world. All men possess dignity because of their rational autonomy,
d. d. 20th-century constitutions and international declarations: Finally, another
prominent yet problematic source for the introduction of “human dignity” into
contemporary bioethical discussions is the fre- quent use of that phrase in national
constitutions and international declarations ratified in the aftermath of the Second
World War. By proclaiming a belief in “human dignity,” such documents would
seem, at first blush, to point beyond the prosaic safeguarding of “rights” advocated
in the American founding (“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”) or in the
writings of John Locke (“life, liberty, and property”) and other modern natural right
theorists.

The preamble to the Charter of the United Nations (1945) begins:

We the people of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations

from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to
mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dig- nity and
worth of the human person, in the rights of men and women and of nations large
and small....