Human Dignity in Cambodia

​In this episode, Dr Rachel Killean, Prof. Chris McCrudden and Ms Boravin Tann discuss some of the challenges associated with defining human dignity and what they have learned so far about the concept’s diverse meanings in Cambodia. Since its inclusion in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1949, ‘human dignity’ has become a foundational human rights concept. It can be found in international human rights documents, in judicial reasoning in multiple jurisdictions and increasingly in the context of sustainable development programmes around the world. Yet, what human dignity means in practice is by no means so obvious. In fact, understandings of what human dignity requires are often widely varied and contested. In this episode, Dr Rachel Killean, Prof. Chris McCrudden and Ms Boravin Tann dig into some of these complexities. Reflecting on their recent research project ‘Locating Human Dignity in Cambodia’, they discuss some of the challenges associated with defining human dignity and what they have learned so far about the concept’s diverse meanings in Cambodia. Dr Rachel Killean is a Senior Lecturer in the Queen’s School of Law and the Principal Investigator on the ‘Locating Human Dignity in Cambodia’ project. You can read more about her work here: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/rachel-killean and https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1949834. Prof. Chris McCrudden is Professor of Human Rights and Equality at Queen’s School of Law, the William W Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan, and a practising Barrister at Blackstone Chambers in London. He is the author of several publications exploring the human dignity’s diverse meanings and uses and is the editor of the multidisciplinary collection ‘Understanding Human Dignity,’ published by Oxford University Press in 2013. You can read more about his work here: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/christopher-mccrudden andhttps://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/christopher-mccrudden-FBA/ Ms Boravin Tann is a Researcher and Lecturer at the Centre for the Study of Humanitarian Law in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Her interests centre around human rights and transitional justice, and she has published on a range of topics including the right to freedom of expression, victims’ perceptions of justice in Cambodia’s transitional justice processes, and memorialisation in post-conflict contexts. Links You can read more about the project and access the research brief here: https://law.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofLaw/research/publications/human-dignity-cambodia/See also: ‘Dignity and Mana in the 'Third Law' of Aotearoa New Zealand’ https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3932625