So many roads, so much at stake
So many dead ends, I’m at the edge of the lake
Sometimes I wonder what it’s gonna take
To find dignity.
Bob Dylan, Dignity (1963)
In the Mucic et alii case (Judgment of 20.02.2001), the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [ICTFY] (Appeals Chamber) pondered that both International Humanitarian Law and the International Law of Human Rights take as a “starting point” their common concern to safeguard human dignity, which forms the basis of their minimum standards of humanity.
from: Humankind as a subject of International Law,
In: International Law for Humankind, p. 279
Authors: Antônio Augusto and Cançado Trindade
The prevalence of the principle of respect of the dignity of the human person is identified with the ultimate aim itself of Law, of the legal order, both national and international. By virtue of this fundamental principle, every person ought to be respected (in her honour and in her beliefs) by the simple fact of belonging to humankind, irrespective of any circumstance.
from: Humankind as a subject of International Law,
In: International Law for Humankind, p. 279
Authors: Antônio Augusto and Cançado Trindade
Humiliation (also called stultification) is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It can be brought about through bullying, intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or trickery, or by embarrassment if a person is revealed to have committed a socially or legally unacceptable act. Whereas humility can be sought alone as a means to de-emphasise the ego, humiliation must involve other person(s), though not necessarily directly or willingly.
from: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humiliation
Poverty doesn´t only consist of being hungry for bread, but rather it is a tremendous hunger for human dignity.
Mother Teresa
Her essential wisdom, edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi,
Fall River Press, New York, 2006 , p. 31
(found by Francisco Cardoso Gomes de Matos)
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented.’
Elie Wiesel
Dignity is the fundamental innate worth of the human person. A good society honors the dignity of all persons and expects all its members to respect the dignity of others.
Betty Reardon
“I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, human liberty as the source of national action, the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas”
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
