European Human Rights Law Review

Catherine Dupré guest-edits a special issue of the European Human Rights Law Review focusing on human dignity in the UK.

‘Hardly a day goes by without a dignity story hitting the headlines: the Windrush generation battles on against the “hostile environment” caused by the Home Office, the Grenfell tower survivors struggle to have their voices heard, women cannot afford to buy the sanitary products they need on a monthly basis, care homes keep failing many of their residents, conditions of detention have never been so bad, loneliness is reaching the level of a social crisis, homeless people die around the corner from the Houses of Parliament, a fast-rising number of people are too poor to buy food and to make themselves a cup of tea. Aspirations of human dignity, and legal claims based upon it, raise fundamentally important issues of humanity, the essence of civilisation and how we relate to and interact with each other. Translating such claims into law is a complex process in which human dignity can play an instrumental role as a legal tool to capture these aspirations and to protect our core humanity. Due to the lack of a statutory basis for human dignity, which is enshrined neither in the European Convention on Human Rights nor in the Human Rights Act 1998, bridging the gap between people’s aspirations to be treated as human beings regardless of who they are and the situation they find themselves in, and the recognition and protection the law can afford, is not without challenges.’ (2 (2019) EHRLR 115)

The special issue brings together some of the key actors in the human dignity development in the UK, Sir James Munby, Nicola Braganza, Louise Finer and John Wadham, Peter J Laverack and Daniel Bedford. Drawing on their first-hand experience and reflection, the special issue provides essential insights to understand and use human dignity-based arguments in order to protect some of the most vulnerable members of society.

This special issue is the fruit of an ESRC funded project entitled ‘Human Dignity in UK Legal Practice: Realities, Challenges and Potentials’ and forms part of Catherine Dupré’ s ongoing research on human dignity, human rights and democracy.

Download table of contents.

Date: 3 June 2019