Toward a Principle of Human Dignity

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-821-620191003
• Date: 18 November 2019
• Published date: 18 November 2019
• Pages: 27-34
• Author: Suheil Bushrui

Chapter 2

Toward a Principle of Human Dignity

Suheil Bushrui

What is a Principle of Human Dignity?

In his 1972 inaugural lecture at the University of Oxford, the Canadian scholar

Alastair Buchan (1973) anticipated both the strength and challenge of our present

world order when he spoke of his belief “in the validity of a plural international

system [composed] of many different kinds and sizes of nations and civilizations

… difcult though it may be to manage.” Forty years later, US analyst Charles

Kupchan (2012) emphasized the intricacy of “fashioning consensus and compro-

mise in an increasingly diverse and unwieldy world … in which multiple versions

of order and modernity coexist ….”

In the twenty-rst century, in an age of global interdependence, every civiliza-

tion, every culture, every society, every community, every institution, and indeed,

every individual, should enjoy the right and ability to articulate an understanding

of the principle of human dignity. And perhaps, in this age of individual empow-

erment and profound interconnectedness, it would not be going too far to declare

that we all labor under an obligation to do so.

The preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which espouses

a profound belief “in the dignity and worth of the human person,” also asserts

“recognition of the inherent dignity and … equal and inalienable rights of all

members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in

the world …”(United Nations, 1948).

A few years after the Universal Declaration was proclaimed, Swedish diplomat

and then-UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld articulated his own under-

standing of human dignity. In an address titled “The International Signicance

of the Bill of Rights,” Hammarskjöld (1956) said, “recognition of human dignity

means to give others freedom from fear ….” This elegantly simple but spiritually

profound understanding “to give others freedom from fear” is especially appeal-

ing and constructive because it places the burden of upholding human dignity

on every individual and not for themselves but rather for the benet of others.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Dignity and Human Rights, 27–34

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doi:10.1108/978-1-78973-821-620191003