Dignity refers to the fact of inspiring and deserving respect to others but also having respect for oneself. It also implies that someone has to be respected and protected.

Every human being has the right to dignity, no matter who he is, his social status, what he accomplished during his life.

We can draw a parallel between this value and the value “honor” because honor refers to a moral principle which leads someone to act according to certain social norms which allow them to earn other people’s respect but also to preserve their moral dignity.

When you are humiliated, it means that someone harmed your dignity : like for example when someone makes up fake rumours about you.

We can also do things that will harm our own dignity or the respect that others had for us. For example, one may say that a person doesn’t have respect for themselves because they show themselves in public or on social networks consuming drugs and alcohol.

We all have our own version of what’s worthy or not of respect and dignity.

Dignity depends on social norms, and on a society’s vision of what is acceptable or not. The concept of dignity changes from a culture to another. Let’s take for example the hijab : in Islam, we consider that a woman has to wear the hijab in order to remain pure (see purity) and preserve her modesty and so her dignity. Whereas in other cultures a woman’s dignity isn’t defined by her clothes.

This value is for those who consider dignity as an important concept, those who are very respected by others because they did honorable things in their life.