Reference to human dignity is pervasive in human rights discourse. However, many writers have expressed puzzlement about this idea. Three common worries are that it does not have a clear meaning, does not play any important role in the theory and practice of human rights, and lends itself to harmful uses that in fact undermine human rights. This paper provides a constructive response to these worries. First, it proposes an account of the content of the idea of human dignity (or of the idea of the dignity of human beings, as I suggest we understand it) in terms of a conceptual network including the concepts of status-dignity, condition-dignity, the basis of dignity, the circumstances of dignity, and dignitarian norms. Second, it explains why reference to the dignity of human beings is valuable for the theory and practice of human rights. Human dignity helps understand human rights’ nature, contents, and justification.
