WHEN “HUMAN” BECAME “INHUMAN”

Human dignity is the main philosophical foundation of human rights as expressed in the Charter of the United Nations the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and many other documents. The concept of human dignity is meant to distinguish human beings from other creatures notably animals. It underlines the uniqueness of human beings among all creatures above all their free will individual autonomy and capability of independent decision-making based on reason and free moral choice. But philosophers disagree on how to define human dignity and as with human rights the concept is often regarded as a Western one not applicable to other cultures. On the other hand with the recognition of poverty and climate change as major violations of human rights and faced with certain challenges to the uniqueness of humanity caused by modern science and technology notably bio-medicine and genetic engineering the concept of human dignity features again more prominently in the contemporary human rights discourse.