Los usos del término “dignidad” en la jurisprudencia de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos

Abstract

The main goal of this work is to offer a systematization of the different meaning of the expression “human dignity” in the uses given to it by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR from now on). Tos corpus is made of 397 documents (Contentious cases and consultative opinions dictated between 1982 and 2018). In order to evaluate the use of the term in the texts, the following categories and subcategories built by the research team were employed, taking as references the main jurists that approach the topic. This study allowed the elaboration of a series of graphics and tables that display quantitative data as a trigger for some conclusions. Among the conclusions and the research projections the reader might find observations on how and which senses of dignity coexist in the IACHR jurisprudence. The study also presents the usual formulas and the most frequent fact scenarios in the court’s discourse. The main contribution consists of showing that this court does not have a uniform nor clear use of the term.