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    "page_header": "About Dignity Rights",
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    "page_content": "<p>The Dignity Rights Institute works with partners locally and around the world to advance knowledge and capacity-building around the right to human dignity.</p>\r\n<p>Recent projects include:</p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Dignity Rights <strong>Handbooks</strong> for Judges and Civil Society Organizations</li>\r\n<li><strong>Petition</strong> to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission on behalf of children in Haiti</li>\r\n<li>Dignity-based <strong>proposals</strong> to reform indigenous constitutions.</li>\r\n<li><strong>Submission to the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights on the dignity rights of children in the face of climate change.</strong></li>\r\n<li><strong>White papers</strong> on environmental injustice, educational injustice, discrimination, and the dignity rights of vulnerable and marginalized communities around the world.</li>\r\n<li><strong>Reform proposals</strong> to improve conditions for people who are or have been incarcerated in Delaware.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n</ul>\r\n<div style=\"background-color: #80b7ea; border-style: solid; padding: 2px;\">\r\n<p>\"The Dignity Rights Project seeks to make these voices heard and these injustices visible so that they can be addressed. It further seeks to make changes in law, policy, even in small day-to-day ways of doing things. Dignity is actionable through all sorts of channels that we will have to explore as well as create.\"</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">- Catherine Dupr&eacute;, author <br />of <em>The Age of Dignity</em></p>\r\n</div>\r\n<p><strong>This year</strong>, students are working with the National Lawyers&rsquo; Guild Prisoner Advocacy Network to develop a Handbook for Dignity in the Criminal Justice System aimed at jailhouse lawyers, and other advocates, reformers, and policy makers.</p>\r\n<h3>Who We Are</h3>\r\n<p><strong>Erin Daly</strong> is Professor of Law, Widener University Delaware Law School (USA), and Vice President, Institutional Development, UNIFA (Universit&eacute; de la Fondation Aristide) in Haiti. She is the author of&nbsp;<a href=\"http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15052.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Dignity Rights: Courts, Constitutions, and the Worth of the Human Person</em></a><em>&nbsp;(Penn Constitution and Democracy Series</em>)&nbsp;and the co-author of&nbsp;<em>Reconciliation in Divided Societies: Finding Common Ground</em>&nbsp;(Penn Series on Human Rights). She also directs the <a href=\"http://gnhre.org/\">Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment.</a> She was interim dean of the Law School 2013-2015.The Dignity Rights Project is co-directed by <a href=\"ipl://20//WyIyOSJd////\">Erin Daly</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"ipl://20//WyIxMjIiXQ==////\">James R. May</a>.</p>\r\n<div style=\"float: left; width: 33%; padding: 5px;\"><img src=\"irl://1179//\" alt=\"dignity rights book collage\" width=\"95%\" /></div>\r\n<p><strong>James R. May</strong> is Distinguished Professor of Law, Widener University Delaware Law School (USA). He is the author or co-author and editor or co-editor of 10 books and more than 100 articles and chapters, including&nbsp;<em>Standards of Environmental Rights&nbsp;</em>(Cambridge University Press),&nbsp;<em>Principles of Constitutional Environmental Law</em>&nbsp;(American Bar Association) and co-editor of&nbsp;<em>Shale Gas and the Future of Energy</em>&nbsp;(Edward Elgar). May has been inducted into Phi Kappa Phi and the American College of Environmental Lawyers. His work focuses on comparative environmental constitutionalism and dignity rights.</p>\r\n<p>Together, they have written and edited numerous books including:</p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: INDIVISIBILITY, DIGNITY, AND LEGALITY, part of Encyclopedia of Environmental Law (forthcoming Edward Elgar Press 2019)</li>\r\n<li>IMPLEMENTING ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTITUTIONALISM (Cambridge University Press 2018)</li>\r\n<li>NEW FRONTIERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTITUTIONALISM, (United Nations Environment 2017)</li>\r\n<li>JUDICIAL HANDBOOK ON ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTITUTIONALISM (United Nations Environment 3d ed. 2019)</li>\r\n<li>THE INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF CRITICAL WRITINGS ON LAW AND THE ENVIRONMENT: ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTITUTIONALISM (Edward Elgar 2016, 2 vols.)</li>\r\n<li><a href=\"https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/global-environmental-constitutionalism/EC9A67A5448AE555015CAA6579104C24\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTITUTIONALISM</a> (Cambridge University Press 2015)</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p>Jointly and separately, they have also written numerous articles and chapters on environmental law, comparative constitutional and international law, and transitional justice.</p>\r\n<p><strong>SELECTED PAST AND PRESENT PARTNERS of the Dignity Rights Institute (Project) at Delaware Law</strong></p>\r\n<p><strong>American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, Dignity Rights Initiative &nbsp;(current)<br /></strong>Business and Human Rights Resource Center <br />Center for Applied Legal Studies, University of Witswatersrand, South Africa <br />Chester Environmental Partnership, Chester, U.S. <br />Coming Clean, Delaware<br />Dignity Media, Nepal<br />Delaware Concerned Residents 4 Environmental Justice<br />Environmental Law Institute<br />Lenape Indian Tribe, Delaware, U.S.<br />Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti/Bureau des Avocats Internationales, Boston, U.S. and Port-au-Prince, Haiti<br />Institute of Romani Culture in Albania (IRCA)<br />Jigme Singjigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law, Bhutan<br /><strong>National Lawyers&rsquo; Guild Prisoners Legal Advocacy Network (current)<br />Pakistan College of Law Dignity Rights Center (current)</strong><br /><strong>Pakistan Supreme Court (current) </strong>and High Court of Lahore, Pakistan<strong><br /></strong>PILnet, New York, U.S.<br />Refugee Legal Support &ndash; UK and Greece<br />SOMRAR &ndash; Human Rights in Somaliland<br />United Nations Environment (formerly UNEP)<br />United Nations International Organization for Migration<br />Universidad del Norte, Baranquilla, Colombia<br />Universit&eacute; de la Fondation Aristide, Haiti</p>\r\n<!-- COMMENTED OUT <hr />\r\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Home |&nbsp;&nbsp;Who We Are&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;Events and Activities&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;Additional Resources</h3>\r\n<hr />\r\n<p>&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p>Human dignity is recognized a foundational value and as a legal right in international law from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) to the Sustainable Development Goals (2015) and in most of the world's constitutions. It is integral to public law, private law, criminal law, and administrative law in areas ranging from environmental protection to housing to procedural rights of political participation and access to justice.</p>\r\n<p><em>\"As constitutions explicitly protect human dignity, and courts [give it] meaning, people around the world increasingly develop a feeling of dignity &ndash; an internalized awareness of their own worth and of the power it carries.\"</em></p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>-Dignity Rights: Courts, Constitutions, and the Worth of the Human Person</em></p>\r\n<hr />\r\n<p><strong>DIGNITY RIGHTS</strong></p>\r\n<p class=\"x_gmail-MsoNormalCxSpFirst\">\"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world&hellip;\"</p>\r\n<p class=\"x_gmail-MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" align=\"right\"><em>-- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, Preamble</em></p>\r\n<p class=\"x_gmail-MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" align=\"right\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=\"x_gmail-MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\">\"The defense of the human person and respect for his dignity are the supreme purpose of the society and the State.\"</p>\r\n<p class=\"x_gmail-MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" align=\"right\"><em>--Constitution of Peru 1993, Title I, Chapter I, Article I</em></p>\r\n<p class=\"x_gmail-MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\" align=\"right\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=\"x_gmail-MsoNormalCxSpLast\" align=\"right\">\"To preserve human dignity and to respect free development of the personality is the core value of the constitutional structure of free democracy.\"</p>\r\n<p class=\"x_gmail-MsoListParagraph\" align=\"right\"><em>--Constitutional Court of Taiwan, J.Y. Interpretation No. 603 (2005.9.28)</em></p>\r\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Human dignity refers to the inherent humanness of each person.&nbsp; It is not an attribute or an interest to be protected or advanced, like liberty or equality or a house or free speech.&nbsp; Rather, human dignity is the essence of our being, without which we would not be human.&nbsp; Human dignity recognizes and reflects the equal worth of each and every member of the human family, regardless of gender, race, social or political status, talents, merit, or any other differentiator.</p>\r\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">As rendered in constitutions and enforced by constitutional courts, it is a&nbsp;<em>legal</em>&nbsp;<em>right&nbsp;</em>that can be and often is asserted against the state or others and enforced by a court.&nbsp;The right to dignity is recognized in more than 150 of the world's constitutions from all regions of the world: Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and North America, and the Pacific. Today, few constitutions are adopted or meaningfully amended without adding a reference to human dignity.&nbsp;The modern concept of dignity applies to&nbsp;<em>all&nbsp;</em>persons. It functions as an equalizer: if everyone has dignity, then everyone is subject to the same obligations and is entitled to the same benefits under the law.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>\r\n<p><a href=\"irl://1590//\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">READ MORE</a> (pdf)</p> -->",
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