ACTIVITY 6: HANDOUT 3
QUESTIONS ABOUT HUMAN DIGNITY

1. Choose someone to read the case study aloud to your group. As you listen, look for evidence in the case that an elderly person’s human right to affordable housing, adequate nutrition, and/or health case is at risk or has been denied. Refer to the lists of human rights/needs generated earlier.

2. Discuss the following questions and take notes on your answers, if possible, with a different note taker for each question.

  • Is human dignity compromised in your case study?
  • Are any of the human rights listed earlier being denied? Refer to the articles of the UDHR.
  • Where would you find the roots of these specific human rights abuses? The individual person and his/her family? Government? Former employers? Societal values? Nature of the economic system?
  • Is there evidence that any human rights listed earlier are being protected in these cases? If so, name the rights which are protected. Who or what protects them?
  • Are the problems identified ones that can be addressed by the efforts of a social service agency or charitable organization? Why or why not?
  • Where does responsibility lie for the care and protection of the human rights of vulnerable, elderly people?
  • How might these cases be different if US government policy considered the social and economic rights to adequate housing, nutrition, and health care, found in Article 25 of UDHR, to be human rights to which everyone is entitled?
  • What issues does this case study raise for you about human dignity? About the relationship between human rights and human needs? Between rights and responsibilities?