Philosophical and legal conceptions of human dignity: Ensuring civil, economic, political, social and cultural inclusion
Julia Duffy1, QUT ACHLR Brisbane 1QUT ACHLR, Brisbane, Qld, Australia
Abstract
Traditional liberal theory has founded personhood on autonomy as rationality and independence, so that adults with cognitive disability have been considered ‘non-persons’. There have been many endeavours to formulate more inclusive theories of personhood, but generally these are considered either under-inclusive or over-inclusive. They may be under-inclusive by not accounting for some people with severe and profound cognitive impairments; or may be cover-inclusive by including some animals as ‘persons’, and thereby being unacceptable to the disability community.
This paper draws on philosophical literature, human rights law and jurisprudence to formulate an innovative concept of ‘five dimensional dignity’ to serve as an inclusive basis for recognising personhood. Five-dimensional dignity recognises the equal worth of all human beings; the importance of autonomy as one valuable good amongst others; the social nature of being human and the embodied nature of personhood. Finally, it identifies how personhood as founded in dignity is reflected in or can be accounted for in law, through recognising and applying the principle of the interdependence and indivisibility of human rights. It considers how the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reveals and drives this disruptive concept of inclusive personhood.
Biography
Julia Duffy is a researcher in disability and human rights law and theory at the Australian Centre for Heath Law Research, QUT. Before entering academia Julia had a long career as a government lawyer, policy advisor and senior executive in both commercial and human services portfolios. From 2012 to 2013 she led a major Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection; she has served as Queensland’s Deputy Public Guardian and as a legal member of Qld’s Mental Health Review Tribunal. Julia has served on statutory health practitioner regulation boards and as a non-executive director of Family Planning Queensland. She provides research and advisory services to government and non-government disability organisations, especially in the area of decision-making by, with and for people with cognitive disability. Julia is the author of the recently published Mental Capacity, Dignity and the Power of International Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2023).