In February 2020, Martha Minow stepped up to the podium at a U.S. State Department conference to address a task force assembled by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to reassess the role of human rights in foreign policy.
The year before, the group, called the Commission on Unalienable Rights, had generated controversy, releasing a report that many argued imposed a hierarchy on human rights, undermining the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ community. Minow had testified about her own concerns with the report (a consummate professor, she gave it a C+).
But in her presentation, she wanted to give a speech on a subject that would elicit agreement in the room. So she spoke for 30 minutes about human dignity.
“Respect for individual dignity means resisting efforts to dehumanize any individual or group or to deny ... their rights simply because of their race, gender, identities or other circumstances,” Minow said in her remarks. “Rules of social order, to be enduring, depend on recognizing the dignity and worth of other humans.” She recalled a shift toward a fuller awareness of other persons’ inherent humanity when she became a mother.
“This is somebody’s beloved child,” was the thought she returned to when dealing with someone who seemed offensive or difficult.
“Rules of social order, to be enduring, depend on recognizing the dignity and worth of other humans.”
Minow — a former dean of Harvard Law School, a 300th Anniversary University Professor (the highest honor a...
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