Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Tania Bruguera: I think that one of the rights, one of the things that the human being need to [inaudible] to me it seems that [inaudible] one of the most basic and fundamental rights in order that the human beings live with dignity and can be happy [inaudible], [is to have a space][inaudible]. It seems to me that many people are left alone without this value and without living with dignity, because I think the governments and the [authorities]are not interested in hearing what is in conflict with their own identities [inaudible]. I think, the best would be to have a space where everybody can hear and is being heard.

by Tania Bruguera

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Tavis Smiley: What are the basic dignities that each human being deserves? I think, and I’ve thought a great deal about this, I think there are really three things that every human being wants: to be loved, to be respected, and to be paid attention to. To be loved, respected, and paid attention to. I think fundamentally if we were to honor every human being with those three things, the world would be a lot better place to live and to work and to play in. It all starts with love. The respect is terribly important, respect for life, respect for their values, respect for their mores, respect for their belief systems, but respect human beings—respect for human beings. And finally, to be paid attention to. Every one of us, no matter what our work is, no matter what our mission is, wants to know that someone is paying attention to the kind of contribution that we are attempting to make. And so again, to be loved, to be respected, and to be paid attention to are the basic things, I find, that most human beings want and need.

by Tavis Smiley

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Tegla Loroupe: Answertext will be available soon.

by Tegla Loroupe

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: I think that the rights that every human being is better stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s much better than I can state right now. But what I think when we’re looking at self-determination and for every human to be able to have the right to culture, the right to food, the right to communicate and the right to have political and social self-determination, I think one of the big questions that comes up for me is the notion of rights means that there’s a body or an agency which is usually primarily a state that grants people rights. I think one of the things that we see under corporate globalization is that more and more we see a great deal of people who have no formal relationship to the state. So if you are state-less, if you are a refugee, if you are an immigrant without papers, if you’re someone who has been criminalized or incarcerated, you no longer have an agency that guarantees you those rights. So, I think that we have to look at some place where we allow these intrinsic values to be guaranteed to someone, that super state, that super - and I’m not sure what that body would be. I’m not an expert in that field. But this is the thing that I see with the people around me is that human rights are really only spoken about for certain people. I think if you’re a country in the North, if you are a citizen and you’re of wealth, you can talk about human rights and you have access to human rights. But if you’re any of these populations that don’t have a relationship to the state, then the question of rights is off the table. And so, that’s where I feel like there’s a critical gap. I think there’s a place where we need to have political will to recognize it. If we want to have a place in human history where we recognize every human being has the dignity and the right, all of these rights for self-determination, that we need to be able to guarantee them in a way that is not conditional to punitive states that they live in.

by Thenmozhi Soundararajan

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Tu Weiming: This may very well be rooted in the conception of so-called universal values. We do believe human rights are universal values, particularly political values, but we have not taken in to serious consideration of economic rights such as the right to fresh water, the rights to food and shelter and so forth. And the dignity of the person is rested upon the minimum economic condition for human survival. For example, if we recognize that the political rights of a person are in alienable, and yet we do not care whether the person has a job, has access to fresh water, has a minimal condition for survival. We may have cherished political rights in such a way that we abdicate our responsibility for helping people to certainly not just preserve but to develop their personal dignity. So the idea of a personal dignity has to be linked to economic conditions, not just political conditions. And this is also the question, can the person find his own dignity if he is isolated from his own culture. If his own culture has been undermined by forces from the outside and his sense of ideality is being threatened by various kinds of conditions beyond his or her control. It is in this sense that the dignity of the individual is a multidimensional issue to be realized in a multidimensional way. And of course, we need to develop a sense for priority. The major debate right now is between political rights and economic rights, how to consider political rights as essential as economic rights.

by Tu Weiming

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Udi Aloni:

by Udi Aloni

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Valentina Melnikova: In my opinion human dignity is the possibility of a human being to remain himself and live in a way which he considers the most comfortable and right way that permit him to live in normal comfortable human conditions. It’s substantial that the whole world realizes that the most important thing for a human being is freedom and only free man has human dignity. We should learn to protect human dignity of individual people like soldier’s mothers in Russia do as well as dignity of human community in general. Authorities, criminal groups, corporations, punishment systems in many countries try to attempt this human dignity. The task how to protect one's self and to make so that the law of human dignity will be not broken is the problem of organization of human rights protection “Soldiers' Mothers”. Day by day seventeen years long we protect Russian youth, Russian soldiers who suffer from officer’s violence in the army. We protect human dignity of Russian families who are neglected and disregarded by the military system, politicians and authorities of Russia. We have learned to protect some people, but unfortunately the system of military service and state continues yet to transgress dignity of person.

by Valentina Melnikova

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Vesna Pesic: Answertext will be available soon.

by Vesna Pesic

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Viviana Figueroa: What do men deserve to live dignified? I think that they deserve [...] with nature, with human beings that surround them. They need to have this direct contact with nature to make aware of how important is the world which sourrounds us and of how beautiful it is. For example in my village and in other indigenous villages, we maintain this closely relation with nature, with "mother earth", with "Pacha Mama" which gives us all what we need to live and to maintain our culture like our mother who gives all to us - our food, our wisdom,.... By the signs, nature says to us what is bad or not, what whether will be. We maintain this closely relation; that's why we respect the nature. In the way in which for example we contaminate water or interrupt the balance of nature, this pollution of water will [cause a... for us]. That's why we maintain a relation of respect and of balance with "mother nature". I think that the values which are lost, represent this respect towards the others. The problem is that we often think only of the moment and of what surrounds us - only concerning the nearest ambit. Actually, we don't respect nature and what keeps us alive - for example sun, earth, water, moon, air, all these elements let us survive. We have to live each minute; that's what is gone lost. So I think that in this way in which men treat the relation with "mother nature", we will obtain a better life, in a more comprehensible way and we will approach to have an healthy environment, a respectful relation with other human beings and an harmonic relation with all what surrounds us.

by Viviana Figueroa

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Wim Wenders: The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Magna Carta for all mankind, as it has been adopted and proclaimed in 1948 defines human dignity in a most emotional and complete and satisfying way. There’s nothing to be added. This is one perfect document of mankind. It should be included in every passport, I feel, so that every person on this planet, at least everybody who has a passport, which of course is not everybody but at least everybody who has a passport, can travel with this document and can re-read it or sometimes even show it and say, “Here, these are my rights.” Why do we let some many people go without these dignities and these rights? I feel like just shutting up now, be silent and cry because we all know the answer. We, we the people of this planet cannot enforce this beautiful Magna Carta of mankind. Maybe we do not fight enough for it; maybe we often too happy if we ourselves are respected. To prepare myself for this question, I went into the Internet and I re-read the United Nations Universal Declarations of Human Rights and it made me cry. I just wept. It is so beautiful. Let’s put it in every passport.

by Wim Wenders

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Yungchen Lhamo: We as a human being if we like a country and [inaudible]. -- I think we have a right to live in a country [inaudible]

by Yungchen Lhamo