Understanding Human Dignity in Colombia
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ScribdTranslationsUnderstanding Human Dignity in Colombia
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ScribdTranslationsINTRODUCTION
It is very common to find the term 'dignity', which is applied and
invoked from very diverse areas, and depending on the context
usually means something different. Thus, in Article 1 of the Declaration
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states to us textually that:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
they, being endowed with reason and conscience, must behave
fraternally with one another.
Similarly, the Colombian Constitution in its article 1
contemplate… [… founded on the respect for human dignity, in the
work…]; all Colombians have the right to enjoy a
decent and adequate housing. The Government will promote the conditions
necessary and will establish the relevant rules to make it effective
this right, related to Art. 51; but returning to what has been stated
Initially, in our daily lives we use the term with nuances.
very different, thus, we hear expressions such as: "he did his job"
very dignified treat me
dignifiedly
indecorous.
However, self-knowledge and natural openness to others
it allows us to recognize in them and in ourselves the cognitive and the great
of freedom. With his intelligence, man is capable of transcending himself and
to transcend the world in which he lives and of which he is a part, is capable of
to contemplate oneself and to contemplate the world as objects. By
on the other hand, the human heart has insatiable desires for love and
happiness that leads them to immerse themselves - with greater or lesser success - in
people and companies. All of this is something innate that is part of their
same being and always accompanies him, although sometimes it may be hidden
due to illness or unconsciousness.
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The dignity inherent to man is a singular value that easily
it can be recognized, and nonetheless it cannot be given anywhere
less an approximation of its definition, we can have dignity
discover in ourselves or we can see it in others, but we can neither
to grant it, let alone to snatch it away or diminish it. It is something that we
viene dado, muy a priori a nuestra voluntad y reclama de nosotros una
provided attitude, appropriate: recognize it and accept it as a value
supreme or in the worst case ignore it or reject it.
Human dignity seen as that singular value is shown to us as
an appeal for unconditional and absolute respect. A respect that must
to extend to all human beings. For that reason, even in the case
that the whole society decided by consensus to stop respecting the
human dignity (e.g. National Socialism), it would still be a
present reality in every citizen, even when some were
relegated to an undignified treatment, persecuted, locked up in camps of
concentration or eliminated, this disdain would change nothing in their
incommensurable value in terms of its inherent condition of being human.
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HUMAN DIGNITY AS THE ESSENCE OF OUR CONSTITUTION
Of the provisions in the Article 1 of the Political Constitution, is
It is clear that human dignity equates to the deserving of treatment.
special that each person must have by the fact of being such. It is equivalent,
without further ado, the right that every person has to demand from others a
I treat according to their human condition. In this way, dignity is
It is established as a fundamental right, with direct effect, whose
General recognition compromises the political foundation of the State
Colombian1.
Reaching a nearly conclusion of this nature has required that one
establish political, religious, philosophical relations regarding the
term, since the assessments that were made centuries ago, before
Christ, after him and even at the doors of the 19th century, were not the same.
An approach in his time was made by Kant, '...man and in general
Every rational being exists as an end in itself and not as a means.
to be objectified, exploited, used by any other will.
Does this suggest that rational beings are persons inasmuch as they are
An end is oneself. It follows that a person has freedom and
1
TARAZONA NAVAS, JULIO ALBERTO. The Empire of the Constitution and Precedent
constitutional. Ediciones Doctrina y ley Ltda. 2007. Page 32. O. cit Ruling SU-062 February 4 of
1999, file T-168219.
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independence respect for all of nature, obviously for
Immanuel Kant's concept of person emerges from an ethical aspect, the
which nevertheless transcends to the point where the concept moves from the
inner dignity, that is to say the Christian idea that all men are
the same, to begin to be perceived as a political relationship where already
It is the duty of the State to uphold the dignity of men, acquiring
an unsuspected force which becomes a political postulate
since then has not been lost.
Human dignity is considered an indisputable good, but
What does the dignity of the human being mean? In my opinion
personal is the minimum requirement that every person has to perform
its own essence or in other words being able to achieve its goals with
the implications it entails, life, health, physical integrity,
psychic and moral and logical with their freedom to be able to carry them out.
The terrible experiences of our contemporaneity have given a
new impetus to the political concept of human dignity, and reappears a
element (Which already in Rome was held, the dignitas: the right of the
person before the community) driver, the fundamental letters of
various countries concerned about elevating to constitutional rank something that
It was evident that everyone knew, but it was still ignored.
Going back a bit, in the world the first Constitution in which it
talks about human dignity is the Irish one, from 1937, and it deals with the
dignity in the Christian sense. The dignity of man is untouchable.
Respecting and protecting it is the duty of every state power, says the
first article of the Constitution of Germany. But the dignity of
man in this sense remains threatened, to preserve it, one must
having the legal formulation, and yet it is not enough. Everything must be done
what is within our reach, to try all the paths, to take root
dignity in the hearts of men.
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Our country, by its very nature, by the same particularities
that in our history has been born is not alien to the movement
worldwide respect for Human Rights, due to the relevance of the
human dignity, but can it really be achieved? Can we aspire to it
while we have an economic model that goes in the opposite direction?
The legal system is aimed at ensuring that everything is effectively realized.
(However, the economic one goes in another car) and each of the
basic components that understand and commit to dignity
human and in this the Constitutional Court has been the most
inquisitive, so to speak, in the attainment and establishment of points
from the perspective of guidelines such as: 'Human dignity understood
as autonomy or as the possibility of designing a life plan and of
determine according to their characteristics (Live as you want); Dignity
human understood as certain specific material conditions of
existence (Living well); and human dignity understood as
intangibility of non-asset goods, physical integrity and
moral integrity (Living without humiliation)2.
Given the positions of the Constitutional Court, I can express that in
Human Dignity converges rights that coexist with others and
admits restrictions but in addition the fact of to be
"constitutionalized" at least guarantees an aspiration of a
better survival that improves the human being, helping him to
achieve the harmony and independence it needs and aspires to.
Therefore, the values that are chosen and pursued in one's own life
they must correspond to their own individual reality to obtain
a full development of its natural abilities.
2
TARAZONA NAVAS, Julio Alberto. The empire of the Constitution and constitutional precedent.
Editions Doctrine and Law Ltda. 2007. Page 35. Excerpts from ruling T-881 of 2002.
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Personal maturity is only viable when obstacles are eliminated that
may result in a detention of it or a regression to stages
more primitive (Selfishness, its own interest). Therefore, it is not
trying to establish some universal, desirable values
for everyone, of course, political wills must coincide and hopefully
the economic measures so that the content of the constitution does not remain
only in dead letter and in what the qualification that has been given to it in several
areas of "Aspirational Constitution" can be dismantled, but in the
meaning that actions can completely distort it Our
the country has suffered enormously and the indignity is over 50% of the
population, we must be channeling all the future
herramientas posibles para direccionar la ruta que el constituyente del
91 intended to define, with the mistakes they left and all its context, but
It is necessary to raise awareness in society so that it becomes a reality.
to raise Human Dignity as the center and becoming of our
nation..