Probably no state will fulfill completely the obligation to protect hu-man rights, much less human dignity. International organizations, official and unofficial, are considering what to do when states violate humanity by claiming their sovereign power to abuse their own citi-zens. Their boundaries are increasingly porous, and they are open to economic and cultural influ-ences that demand more than observing their own laws. Given these developments, it is even possible that the western definitions of human rights spawn such abuses by focusing on their parochial preferences. By the same token, denying some of rights on the excuse that others are more important would fail also to respect human dignity.
Human dignity transcends both the protections and the denials.
It is expressed in the pride that all individuals can experience as human beings capable of endeavors to which only our own species can as-pire. Human dignity is, then, an even larger concept than human rights. Rather it depends upon the moral volition of individual hu-man beings. Human dignity involves respect for that volition. Not all people want the same things, and even when they do, they may not assign them the same importance.