ABSTRACT
Human dignity for all reminds the reader that human rights are universal, inalienable, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. John Humphrey, a Canadian international law expert assigned to act as the director of the Human Rights Division of the UN Secretariat, assisted the three drafters and was tasked with providing the first draft of the UDHR. It is more difficult for discussions of human rights to descend into special pleading for the rights of oneself or one's group when the focus is on human dignity, because dignity as a concept applies to everyone. For example, while the UDHR does not provide religious or philosophical justifications for human rights, various thinkers and authors have provided such justifications. Human dignity is a dynamic concept not only for facilitating discussion and understanding between different religious or ideological points of view, but it is also a powerful mechanism for centering reflection within particular intellectual traditions.
