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Human Dignity, Humiliation, and Torture
- Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 19, Number 3, September 2009
- pp. 211-230
- 10.1353/ken.0.0292
- Article
- Additional Information
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Modern human rights instruments ground human rights in the concept of human dignity, without providing an underlying theory of human dignity. This paper examines the central importance of human dignity, understood as not humiliating people, in traditional Jewish ethics. It employs this conception of human dignity to examine and criticize U.S. use of humiliation tactics and torture in the interrogation of terrorism suspects.