Dignity of a human being in the Acts of International Protection of Human Rights

In many acts on international protection of human rights there appears the notion of „inherent dignity of a human being". According to the author, too little attention has so far been devoted to that concept Therefore, the main purpose of the present article is an attempt to determine the origin, scope, contents and functions of the concept of dignity in different systems of protection of human rights. A starting point for the author's considerations is the analysis of the UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The origin of introducing the notion of dignity into public international law is connected with the tragic experience of the WW II. Then, the author-analyses different acts of hard and soft law of international protection of human rights,, both with respect to a universal as well as to regional systems. The object of considerations are also some norms of international humanitarian law. In the author's opinion the notion of dignity appears in two basic meanings: as personal dignity and human dignity. In the first- mąening it is a synonym of honour and good name, whereas in the second it is concerned with the essence of humanity and is tightly connected with human rights. In international acts of protection of human rights, human dignity plays the role of a legal principle in a sense of a certain ideal as well as the role of a legal rule in a sense of a definite norm. In his concluding remarks the authors states that the contents of the notion of human dignity should be subject to further concretization in the norms of public international law. It is the- only way for the principle of respect for dignity of a human being to become the foundation of universal justification of human rights on one hand,, and the meta-rule of interpretation on the other.Digitalizacja i deponowanie archiwalnych zeszytów RPEiS sfinansowane przez MNiSW w ramach realizacji umowy nr 541/P-DUN/201