The relationship between dignity and human rights is puzzling. One puzzling feature is that dignity plays two distinct roles in human rights theory: on the one hand, dignity is the foundation of human rights, i.e. that in virtue of which we have human rights. On the other hand, dignity is that which is at risk in a narrow subset of human rights, such as torture. But how can dignity underpin all human rights, and yet only be at stake in very specific human rights violations? I offer a solution to this puzzle, in the form of a reconceptualization of dignity. I argue that an individual’s dignity can be constituted via either of two sources: the agent’s own normative competencies, or the authority of her community. The former is what’s typically at stake in practices such as torture; it is in virtue of the latter that we have human rights.
