one - Human dignity and social policy

Summary

In the twentieth century, more than a hundred million in Europe alone died by violence, often in a way they could not have foreseen even in their worst nightmares. In our century, history has been a butcher's bench, and the words human dignity have often sounded empty.

(Michael Novak, 1998)

The importance of human dignity always emerges from the torture and abuse of human beings. In 2004, the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison was widely reported. Newspaper photographs show a hooded prisoner with wires fixed to his body, a dog attacking a prisoner and nude inmates piled in a human pyramid, forced to simulate sex with each other. In response to these abuses, General Mark Kimmitt, Deputy Director of Operations for the US military in Iraq, urged the US army to ‘treat people with dignity and respect’ (Guardian, 2004a). The Church of England also urged the US government to treat Taleban and Al-Qaeda prisoners in Guantanamo Bay with ‘humanity and dignity’ (BBC News, 2002). The rights of the prisoners are protected by the Geneva Convention, which clearly states:

Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria. (Geneva Convention, 1950, Article 3)

Based on this international treaty, we can easily judge that the actions of the soldiers involved were illegal and violated the dignity of the prisoners. Yet the number of prisoners of war is relatively small compared with the hundreds of thousands of poor people who are living on various types of public benefits. Welfare recipients typically suffer, not from physical abuse, but from psychological and social abuse as a result of abusive welfare practices such as compulsory birth control, the publication of the names of welfare recipients, the restriction of financial support to limited periods and the termination of welfare benefits for a household when only one of its members fails to fulfil work requirements (see Chapters four and five). The abuse of welfare recipients receives less attention than the maltreatment of prisoners, and these types of welfare practices are not treated as illegal but are widely practised in many countries.