The ‘Interpretive Compass’ of the CRPD: The Theory of Dignity

Abstract

Chapter 4 explains the ‘interpretive compass’ and examines the first limb being the theory of dignity in international human rights law and as a core value of the CRPD. It explores the meaning of dignity in the disability context and breaks it into its key components being that dignity involves recognition of inalienable intrinsic human worth, the relationship between dignity and equality, that dignity requires people to behave with dignity, that dignity requires a person to be treated with dignity, that the state should organize itself to support dignity, and the relationship between dignity and autonomy.