Positive dignity and the universality of self-fulfillment rights

This Article offers an understanding of human rights that helps to ground these rights in self-fulfilment and human flourishing. It attempts to do so by distinguishing two aspects of human dignity: negative dignity and positive dignity. Negative dignity refers to the aspect of dignity that is predominantly invoked in human rights-related discussions but which focuses primarily on the negative aspects of human experience; that is, how one's dignity may be violated, harmed or undermined by state oppression, attitudinal and structural discrimination, and socio-economic deprivation. In essence, negative dignity addresses how human beings are otherwise vulnerable and affords justification for why there ought to be laws and cultural norms in place to guard against form of cruelty, abuse, domination, humiliation and unfair treatment. Positive dignity, in contrast, focuses on the self-affirming aspects of human experience and stresses the need to attend to the basic conditions through which one may attain a level of well-being towards a self-fulfilling life. Unlike negative dignity, positive dignity addresses how dignity may be realised and argues that one's inherent worth is only realizable if appropriate conditions are satisfied, offering an opportunity for an individual to flourish and pursue his or her self-fulfillment. It is on the basis of positive dignity that self-fulfillment rights are more fully justified and achieved.