Every day, lawyers and judges are reshaping the law to protect essential dignity rights. These cases ensure that all people

— have agency over their lives,

— can live with dignity, and

— are treated with dignity by others.

When the law respects and promotes human dignity, that’s justice.

Almost every constitution on earth protects dignity and, every day, courts are reshaping the law around people’s needs to live with dignity and to be treated with dignity. These are our dignity rights.

We work to support and encourage legal advocates, activists, judges, scholars, students, and others to bend the arc of the law toward dignity. Click on the resources below to learn more about how the law protects human dignity, and visit the treasure trove of student work that is already moving dignity rights forward.

The American Bar Association has resolved that

“human dignity — the inherent, equal, and inalienable worth of every person — is foundational to a just rule of law;” and it

“urges governments to ensure that ‘dignity rights’ – the principle that human dignity is fundamental to all areas of law and policy — be reflected in the exercise of their legislative, executive, and judicial functions.”

This Resolution was adopted unanimously by the ABA House of Delegates in 2019. Pursuant to the Resolution, the ABA Center for Human Rights established a Dignity Rights Initiative which now houses many dignity rights resources.

Legal Resources

Case Library

We maintain a free, fully searchable, open access database of the growing body of dignity law worldwide. We provide links to the original cases, keywords, and an abstract for each case focusing on the development of dignity law.

Dignity of Environmental Rights

Isn’t it time for international law to protect people’s rights to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment? Here is a draft of an International Covenant on Environmental Rights, produced by the International Center for Comparative Environmental Law in France.

Dignity in Constitutions

Here is a listing of constitutional provisions from more than 160 countries that protect human dignity. It is also recognized in the constitutions of states and provinces in the US, Brazil, and elsewhere.

Free Online Human Rights MicroLearning Course

In partnership with the Global Campus of Human Rights, an international human rights educational organization, and in collaboration with dignity law expert Catherine Dupré, we’ve created a free online Micro-Learning Course on “Human Dignity and Human Rights.” The course contains original material and extensive interviews with scholars and three of the world’s leading dignity rights jurists, Ret. Justice Albie Sachs of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Ret. Justice Susanne Baer, of the German Constitutional Court, and Judge Veronia Gomez, currently sitting on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The Course contains 5 units and is designed to take about 1 hour per unit.

“Democracy is not just the right to vote, it is the right to live in dignity.”
— Naomi Klein

Glossary

Our Glossary describes the essential terms that courts around the world use to define various aspects of dignity.

Infographic

Legal rights explained in animated panels.

Dignity and Democracy

Visit the Dignity and Democracy blog for news and insights about current events and critical reflection on the significance of human rights for democracy today.

Dignity in US Criminal Law

Available for free download as a pdf, this book shows how the US criminal legal system debases and degrades people, and provides a roadmap for what we can do about it. It is the product of the Dignity Rights Clinic at Delaware Law School, in collaboration with the Prison Legal Advocacy Network (PLAN). It contains chapters on arrest, pretrial detention and bail, sentencing, conditions of incarceration, reentry, and the treatment of young people in the system.

Dignity in an Unstable Climate

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights accepted our amicus submission, The indivisibility and interdependence of human rights: a key perspective for climate justice, arguing that climate justice requires attention to the myriad indivisible ways in which climate conditions violate human dignity. In this case, Chile and Colombia asked the Court for an Advisory Opinion about the obligations of states in the face of climate change.

Here is a submission to the Philippine Commission on Human Rights concerning the dignity impacts of climate change in its National Inquiry on Climate Change.

Dignity Rights Scholarship

There are dozens of books and articles about dignity. This bibliography provides scholarship from just the last few years.

A Treasure Trove

In this section, we showcase student work that has been developed in law school dignity programs. These projects show how a dignity lens can promote the rights of all people, particularly those in conditions of vulnerability. Some projects are included here in their entirety and others only in part. They all bend the arc of the law toward dignity.

The projects below were developed by students in the Dignity Rights Clinic at NALSAR University of Law, India. Please contact us for more information about any of these projects.

  • Dignity for people who are elderly

    A series of posters for nursing homes to inform residents of their rights to be treated with dignity in matters regarding care, financial decisions, and support services.

  • Dignity in the Digital Age

    A poster to visually show how the law protects dignity from digital invasions of privacy.

  • Dignity for Sanitation Workers

    A power point presentation explaining the importance of respecting the dignity of sanitation workers and waste pickers.

  • Education for Children of Sex Workers

    A detailed guide to expand educational opportunities for children of sex workers to ensure improved access and to protect against discrimination,

  • Menstrual Dignity

    A poster explaining the dignity harms of failing to provide menstrual hygiene to women and girls in prison, and proposing simple, cost-effective solutions.

  • Dignity behind Bars

    A power point presentation to ensure access to assistive aids for prisoners with disabilities.

  • Rights of Prisoners

    A hard-hitting short film about the rights of people who are incarcerated to freedom of speech, mental and physcial medical care, dignified personal appearance, protection from cruelty, education and skill development, and the right to life and dignity.

Book cover titled "Why Aren't We Doing This?" with an orange exclamation mark, a photograph of three women, and text about collaborating with minors in major ways by Denise Webb and Wendy Schaetzel Lesko.
Book cover titled 'Dignity in America' by Erin Daly, with the subtitle 'Transforming Social Conflicts' on a beige background.
Book cover titled 'Misplaced' by Alexia Lewnes, featuring a blurred image of a child in a coat standing on a dark street at night with parked cars and streetlights.

Books by the Dignity Now! Team

Book cover titled 'Dignity Rights' by Erin Daly, featuring a photo of three women with traditional jewelry and attire standing near a polling station.
Students sitting on the floor reading books, wearing traditional Indian clothing, with the cover of a book titled 'Dignity Law: Global Recognition, Cases, and Perspectives' by Erin Daly and James R. May shown at the bottom.
Book cover titled 'Dignity in the Criminal Legal System: A Policy Guide for Advocacy and Reform' by Erin Daly, featuring an illustrated bird with an eagle's head and a body of a bird with mosaic pattern, against a yellow and gray background.