This pictures was taken at one of our first conferences (in Paris in 2003)

•  It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
- Mahatma Gandhi

•  Humility is Grace - Humiliation is Disgrace
- Victor Zurbel, 2004

•  Wringing your hands just slows you down from pushing up your sleeves!

•  The person who says "it cannot be done" should not interrupt the person doing it.
- Chinese Proverb.

•  Pessimism is a luxury we can afford only in good times, in difficult times it easily represents a self-inflicted, self-fulfilling death sentence.
- Evelin Lindner & Jo L., Auschwitz survivor, 2004

•  Optimism is never as needed as much as in times of pessimism.
- Evelin Lindner, 2011

•  Human rights must serve human dignity!
- Evelin Lindner, 2011

We are a global and transdisciplinary network and fellowship of concerned researchers and practitioners, dedicated to to stimulating systemic change, globally and locally, thus ending cycles of humiliation throughout the world.

We believe that by eliminating these harmful cycles of humiliation, space is opened for dignity and mutual respect and esteem to take root and grow. We believe that the sustainability of social cohesion and ecological survival requires a frame of cooperation and a spirit of shared humility - and not a mindset of humiliation. In this new context, many previously malign and intractable processes and conflicts can be brought to a new and benign level.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) opens with the following sentence: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

At the core of this sentence stands equality in dignity or nondomination (Philip Pettit), or the delegitimization of the practice of ranking people into higher and lesser beings.

Caveat: When we use the phrase equal dignity on this web site, we do not refer to legal practice, where this phrase is another way of saying the power of attorney: "A written document in which one person (the principal) appoints another person to act as an agent on his or her behalf, thus conferring authority on the agent to perform certain acts or functions on behalf of the principal..." (legal-dictionary). We thank Ardian Adžanela for making us aware that we need to include this important caveat.

As researchers we study the dynamics of humiliation, the antecedents and consequences of humiliating behaviors, and interventions that can help break the cycle of humiliation and restore human dignity. As practitioners we attempt to bring incidents of humiliation in national and international affairs to the attention of people across the globe, to create public awareness of the destructive effects of such humiliation, and to promote alternative approaches that generate human dignity and respect.

Many reject research on "evil" - such as humiliation - as naïve appeasement. This is not our view. We believe that "understanding" and "condoning" ought not be conflated. Nelson Mandela showed the world that humiliation does not automatically lead to mayhem. His example attests to the constructive ways out of humiliation that merit to be studied and promoted. We wish to learn from those constructive elements in Mandela-like or Gandhi-like approaches (please note that we are aware of the various criticisms that may be aimed at Mandela or Gandhi) - for example, Mandela could have instigated a genocide of the white elite, yet he did not.

In our work, we wish to make research relevant to practice and vice versa (as in participatory action research). We invite you, researchers and practitioners from around the world who share our goals, to join us. Please read our call for creativity, a detailed description of our mission and a short description of what we mean when we speak about humiliation. See also our newsletters and our collection of quotes.

On this website, and in our work, we attempt to use a culture-neutral approach, as much as it is at all possible, since our scope is global. This entails that we pay the price of losing some credibility in all cultural realms, since we do not serve any dominant cultural propensity - see a discussion, for example, in What the World’s Cultures Can Contribute to Creating a Sustainable Future for Humankind, a paper prepared by Evelin Lindner for the 11th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS), 23th June-1st July 2008, in Norway.

A new educational initiative emerging from the network is World Dignity University (WDU) to which anyone interested in educating on dignity can contribute ideas for curriculum development.

See here our status 2013:
•  An Introduction to HumanDHS, March 2013
•  HumanDHS Good News, March 2013
•  A Quick Fact Sheet, March 2013
•  Information About Our Leadership and Collaborative Teams, March 2013
•  A Collection of Pictures, Including the Book Covers, March 2013

See here a short welcome video:

This welcome video was created by Lasse Moer on 18th October 2007, on the Blindern campus of the University of Oslo in sunny but very cold autumn weather. The blue jacket is part of the World Clothes for Equal Dignity project. The text for this video has been written by Brian Ward. Here is the full text: "Hello! My name is Evelin Lindner and I have committed my life to engaging with people and communities around the world to end the cycles of violence resulting from people humiliating or putting other people down. To protect our planet for future generations we all need to hold hands in equal dignity and lead each other towards a peaceful, sustainable and a richly diverse global community. Your knowledge, experiences, creativity and inspiration is needed wherever it might be as without your help the journey to peace and sustainability will take so much longer. If you are able to join our network of friends on this wonderful journey please have a look at the opportunities in this website and let us know! Thank you very much!"

What is our aim?

We wish to help discontinue humiliating practices wherever they occur, globally and locally. In order to do this, we aim at building bridges between research and practice. We wish to raise awareness of the workings of humiliation through research and education, and "change the world" more directly through interventions. In other words, we wish to focus on the interplay of both, subjective and institutional aspects of humiliation (Nancy Fraser discusses this in Rethinking Recognition, 2000). On 24th June 2011, we began the process of lifting our research and education activities on a more concrete level and launched the World Dignity University Initiative.

Human rights ideals, emphasizing that each human being is born with equal dignity that ought not be humiliated are central to our work. We are aware of the debate questioning whether human rights are universal, or not, and whether their advocates are arrogant Western imperialists, or not, and we are aware that feelings of humiliation accompany this debate on all sides. We wish to contribute to building a future world society that includes all humankind in constructive and dignified ways.

The vision of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS) is to contribute to reducing - and ultimately eliminating - destructive disrespect and humiliation around the world. Our efforts focus on generating research, disseminating information, applying creative educational methods, and devising pilot projects and policy strategies. With these initiatives we wish to promote a new level of consciousness that is characterized by caring, mutual respect and sensitivity to dignity, thereby fertilizing new and constructive community action.

Research shows the important effect of "framing." In experiments, when players are asked to play the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game as a "community game," they tend to cooperate, while players who think they are playing a "Wallstreet game" tend to cheat. Although the structure of the game is identical, the mere difference in the label has a profound effect upon whether or not players cooperate (see for more information, for example, Lindner 2000).

For our work for more dignity (and less humiliation), we believe that the principle of Unity in Diversity represents a dignifying framing. We wish to promote more unity and at the same time more diversity. We think that this can be made operational by applying theSubsidiarity Principle (matters are handled by the smallest or lowest competent authority, a principle applied, for example, by the European Union).This, in turn, can be made operational, we believe, by Walking the Talk or theAppreciative Approach. We are convinced that this is valid for global and local institutions and organisations as much as for how we construct our identity (and even our brain works in this fashion, by using hierarchies of loops), and not least for our own HumanDHS work.

What we do

Our endeavor is innovative, at many levels, and thus, by definition, we do not yet have a long-standing organization that can look back on years of activities. The organizational structure or our group is that of a network and thus entails a wide range of activities by our members. In our research we study the workings of humiliation, in our educational activities we address them, and in our intervention projects we attempt to translate research into practice.

HumanDHS is a network of scholars, researchers and practitioners that is independent of any ideological, religious, political, or material agenda. At the core of our work is the use of transdisciplinary approaches for generating and disseminating knowledge about human dignity and humiliation. We are committed to a wide range of knowledge creation and dissemination, from shifts in awareness and practice at the local micro-level to larger changes at the level of the global community.

We believe that research in social science should not remain within the academic realm only. Like the natural sciences, social sciences should be taken into "real life." Professor Shibley Telhami explains this point as follows, "I have always believed that good scholarship can be relevant and consequential for public policy. It is possible to affect public policy without being an advocate; to be passionate about peace without losing analytical rigor; to be moved by what is just while conceding that no one has a monopoly on justice."

Also within our group, we want to live our values and create an innovative global network where we emphasize respect for equal dignity and refrain from old-style autocratic communication modes. We also wish to "walk the talk" and create a humiliation-free, collaborative learning environment characterized by appreciative enquiry, mutual respect, mutual empathy, and openness to difference in our research, our communication style with others, as well as in our meetings and dealings within the group.

HumanDHS is developing a global network that serves as a platform for everybody who wishes to contribute to this work. Committed to creating a better future for our world, for our children and grandchildren, our members are dedicated to providing effective and creative platforms for building bridges in situations of disagreement and conflict and for generating a program of future-oriented activities that result in a viable global community.

Sociologist Neil J. Smelser, with his value added theory (or strain theory), analyzes what is necessary for a new social movement to emerge:
1. Structural conduciveness – things that make or allow certain behaviors possible (e.g. spatial proximity).
2. Structural strain – something (inequality, injustice) must strain society.
3. Generalized belief and explanation – participants have to come to an understanding of what the problem is.
4. Precipitating factors – spark to ignite the flame.
5. Mobilization for action – people need to become organized.
6. Failure of social control –authorities not clamping down (see, e.g., Swedberg, Richard (1990). Economics and Sociology: Redefining Their Boundaries: Conversations With Economists and Sociologists. Princenton, NJ: Princeton University Press).

We, as HumanDHS, address all six points:
1. We use the structural conduciveness of the internet.
2. We react to structural strain (humiliation fueling terrorism, for example, or humiliation causing general well-being to diminish).
3. We contribute to efforts to develop a shared understanding of what the problem is (we begin with what Ray & Anderson call the Cultural Creatives).
4. We try to ignite the “flame” of dignity,
5. and mobilize action,
6. while using the inclusive approach that human rights call for.

Some reflections

"Pessimism is a luxury we can only afford in good times, in difficult times it easily represents a self-inflicted, self-fulfilling death sentence. This insight, to me, is real Realism or real Realpolitik, far from blue-eyed Idealism. We have to courageously resist the current tendency to suspect those who work for a better world to be hopeless idealists. This would mean Realpolitik letting disaster happen (by deepening fault lines instead of transcending them), and us not at least attempting to prevent this. Strange real Realpolitik!"
Evelin Lindner, 2004.

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
Howard Zinn (You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A personal history of our times, 2004, p. 208)

What you can do

Please click on Who We Are, where you can read more about us, our Global Coordinating Team, Global Core Team, Global Advisory Board, Global Partners, Global Supporters, and Annual Meetings. You can also meet with our Board of Directors, including Evelin G. Lindner (Founder), Donald C. Klein, Linda M. Hartling, Richard Slaven (Business Manager), Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Eric Van Grasdorff, Victoria Fontan, Maggie O'Neill, Grace Feuerverger, Arie Nadler, Michael Britton.

You have furthermore access to an Introduction to our work, to our History, to our Mission Statement , to our Call for Creativity, our Welcome to Newcomers, and our Collection of Quotes.

See also a short definition of humiliation, read on eliminating humiliation, on the larger sociological context within which our work is positioned, on possible futures for our planet and which future our group wishes to promote, read also on the methods we wish to use, guided by appreciative enquiry. See our intervention rationale here.

We have four agendas, the first one is to build our group as a global network and alliance (see Who We Are). The other three are our Research Agenda, our Education Agenda, and our Intervention Agenda.

We also plan to create a Human Dignity Shop.

And you can contact us here. If you wish to make a donation, please click here.

Morton Deutsch has formulated a pledge that you might wish to ponder:
Imagine a global human community in which you, your children, and grandchildren as well as all the others in our shared planet and their children and grandchildren:
•  … Are able to live in dignity and are treated fairly.
•  … Have freedom from the fear of violence and war and can live in peace.
• ... Have freedom from want so that you do not ever have to live in such impoverished circumstances you and your loved ones can not have adequate care, food, water, shelter, health services,education, and other necessities for physical and emotional well-being as well as a dignified life.
•  …Have freedom of information, publication, speech, beliefs, and assembly so that you can be free to be different and free to express open criticism of those in authority individually or collectively.
•  … Have the responsibility to promote, protect, and defend such freedoms as those described above for yourself as well as for others when they are denied or under threat.
• …Will work together cooperatively to make the world that their grandchildren will inherit free of such problems as war, injustice, climate change, and economic disruption.
Are you willing be a member of such a global human community? If “yes”, please make the following pledge: I pledge to promote these rights and responsibilities in my own life, in my community, and in the global community as best I can through nonviolent personal actions and working together with others.
(This pledge can be found on pp. 11-12 in the chapter "A Framework for Thinking about Developing a Global Community," by Morton Deutsch, Eric C. Marcus, and Sarah Brazaitis, in Peter T. Coleman and Morton Deutsch (eds.), The Psychological Components of Sustainable Peace, Springer Press, 2012)

Rhymed Reflections

• Francisco Gomes De Matos prepared a "Communicative Dignity: A Checklist" in Recife, Brazil, concluding that "dignity is more than a quality; It is the essence of our humanity." Uli Spalthoff printed this checklist 40 times in Germany, and brought to Oslo to distribute on the tables of the launch event. Francisco Gomes de Matos coined the term digniversity, and Bhante the term dignicommunity. See also Dignity in Care: Stand up for dignity - The Dignity Challenge by José Carlos Gonçalves.

• A  Dignity Creed: A checklist for dignifiers
by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, Cofounder, The World Dignity University initiative (12th October 2012)
1. In the life-improving strength of Dignity, let's believe
2. To the character-elevating role of Dignity, let's be committed
3. In the everyday relational force of Dignity, let's believe
4. To the communication-enhancing function of Dignity, let's be committed
5. In the global citizenship-building value of Dignity, let's believe
6. To the human-conduct uplifting contibution of Dignity, let's be committed
7. In the life-supporting power of Dignity, let's believe
8. To the mutual-respect-enhancing force of Dignity, let's be committed
9. In the Human Rights-honoring function of Dignity, let's believe
10.To an all-forms-of-life-and-environment-supporting DIGNITY, let's be committed
11.In the life-preserving power of Peace, Nonviolence, and Nonkilling, let's believe
Readers are asked to continue the above Checklist.
For further reflection:
As global citizens, we are entrusted with responsibilities, rights, and privileges.
As global citizens, do we fulfil our co-responsibilities dignifyingly? How? Why?
As global citizens, do we exercise our rights dignifyingly? How? Why?
As global citizens, do we enjoy our privileges dignifyingly? How? Why?

• Defining DIGNITY Didactically through Rhymed reflections
by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, Cofounder, The World Dignity University initiative (23th August 2012)
DIGNITY has to do with character elevation
It also refers to one's wisdom in conversation
DIGNITY has to do with conduct integrity
It also refers to everyday relational quality
DIGNITY has to do with personal worthiness
It also refers to one's moral thoroughness
DIGNITY has to do with the deepest foundation of Human Rights
It also refers to being able to live inspired by compassionate lights
Francisco Gomes de Matos added (24th August 2012):
Why define didactically and how ?
1. If we define didactically we provide more meaningful info on distinctive features of a concept
2. We use a rhymed reflection format to enhance the definition`s memorability
By defining didactically, we provide a deeper perception of the defined concept-term. Researchers have not been linguistically educated to create didactic definitions; they tend to rely on definitions as worded by lexicographers. Given the educational mission of The World Dignity University initiative, systematic education/training in defining didactically could become a permanent creative procedure in every discipline or interdiscipline.

• On the use(s) of DIGNIlanguage: A Checklist
by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, Cofounder, The World Dignity University initiative (7th September 2012)
Introductory remarks:
DIGNIlanguage reflects DIGNITY. As such, it is also MULTIdimensional. Here's an open-ended Checklist for you to use, reflect on, add to, probe ...:
Example statements end in a verb form in -ATED, so as to enhance the list's memorability.
Look for other relevant  verb endings.
When we use DIGNIlanguage,.....
1. is human character elevated?  How? Why ?
2. are participants in the human interaction educated? How? Why?
3. are different human perspectives integrated? How? Why?
4. is communicative peace also propagated? How? Why?
5. is relational dignity effectively demonstrated? How? Why?
6. are solutions to problems/conflicts constructively enunciated?
Let's do our very best so that
our uses of DIGNIlanguage
in our daily actions be wisely resonated!

• Rhymed Reflections on DIGNITY: A peace linguist`s view
by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, Cofounder, The World Dignity University initiative (23rd March 2013)
DIGNITY is a power:
when used spiritually,it becomes a flower

DIGNITY is the source of Human Rights
It shines everywhere as humanizing lights

DIGNITY is a deep quality
It gives a soul to equality

DIGNITY is needed in Economy
to give wealth a worthy physiognomy

DIGNITY is embedded in Peace
Treating others well should never cease!

•A DEEPER -ISM FOR THE WORLD: Rhymed Reflections
by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist from Recife, Brazil, Cofounder of The World Dignity University Initiative (19th May 2013)
Hundreds of concepts in -ISM in many languages there are
Many of them have been helping Humankind constructively go far

What is needed now? A deeper -ISM with which the World could be improved
There should be proposed an -ISM by which all human hearts would be moved

Among new -ISMS of such in-depth power there is one that excels
It is more than a system or theory: of a needed universal quality it tells

What could we call it in English a how could it be expressed?
By a compact word resulting from DIGNITY+ISM being compressed

There are many constructive -ISMS Humankind can live by
but DIGNISM will remind us that human character should always aim high

Through rhymed reflections this lexical Plea has been composed
The presence of DIGNISM in all languages is hereby proposed

• Francisco Gomes de Matos wrote (24th August 2012):
Dear reader, ever thought of defining HUMILIATION didactically through rhymed reflections?
Here's an attempt, but DO create your own didactic definition:
Humiliation has to do with a person degrading
It also refers to character downgrading
Humiliation has to do withs violation of dignity
It also refers to debasing a person's human quality
Humiliation has to do with s self-respect reducing
It also refers to a person`s loss of pride inducing

• Humiliation: a psychological killingRhymed reflections by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, Cofounder, The World Dignity University initiative (11th May 2012)
- Humiliation is a way of psychological killing
causing harm to another person one is willing
- When a person/a group/a community we humiliate
the right to dignity we psychologically violate
- When a person/a group/a community we humiliatingly disrespect
We shame our own intellect
- When a person/a group/a community we treat with humiliating indignity
We debase, dehumanize, depreciate a fundamental psychological quality
- When, in a group, a person you ridicule
It's YOUR dignity that becomes minuscule!
- When, in a group, a person you scorn
Your act shows that your dignity is worn
- When, in a group, a person you discriminate
From the Road to DIGNITY you will deviate
- When, in a group discussion, a person you infuriate
By losing your temper, it's your INdignity that you elevate

• What is humiliation?
A mnemonically-made Checklist (nouns in -ATION) by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, Cofounder, The World Dignity University initiative (30th May 2012)
Humiliation is a vast conceptual territory. As a condition or a state, humiliation is realized in a myriad ways. How can the identification of types of humiliation be systematized ?Here is one simple possibility, created on the basis of mnemonics: Humiliation is associated with concepts ending in -ATION. Readers are challenged to add to the list and to create other mnemonically-based lists. In this age of imaginative education, you are asked to visualize the contexts where each type of humiliation could be brought about or experienced. Feedback on this activity will be appreciated.
What is humiliation? How can it be realized?
By causing or experiencing
1 - discrimination
2 - tribulation
3 - degradation
4 - dehumanization
5 - devaluation
6 - incrimination
7 - demoralization
8 - subjugation
9 - intimidation
10 - dignity-violation
11 - objectification
12 - dislocation
13 . deprivation
14 - mortification

• When We Humiliate
Rhymed reflections for psychological repair
by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, Cofounder, The World Dignity University initiative (27th June 2012)

When we humiliate, psychological harm we may inflict
When we humiliate, with moral principles we may conflict

When we humiliate, our human weakness we demonstrate
Our social indignity, injustice and irresponsibility we obviate

When we humiliate a person/a group,our sense of humanization we deactivate
When we humiliate a human being/group, our own voice of dignity we suffocate

When we humiliate, as human beings we deteriorate
When we humiliate, our spirit of solidarity we obliterate

To humiliation, the more we can resist
The more our Human Dignity will persist

Humiliation: will we ever be able to eliminate?
Yes, if for Dignity all Humankind we REeducate

• On Types of Humiliation: A Checklist
Rhymed reflections for psychological repair
by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, Cofounder, The World Dignity University initiative (29th June 2012)
Who has been subjected to what type of humiliation? A Checklist (nouns ending in -ATION):
Forced/imposed/mistaken/unlawful
1. territorial dislocation
2. (lost) national identification
3. land deprivation
4. (compulsory) academic life termination
5. economic depreciation 6. privacy violation
7.political indoctrination 8. social discrimination
9. marketing globalization
10. psycholotical intimidation
11. temporary incarceration
12. deportation
13. religious discrimination
14. physical condition minimization (being ridiculed for one's physical condition)
15. educational situation (being made fun of because of educational affiliation or the like )
16. linguistic minimization (one's language or language variety being ridiculed or devalued)
Please add to this list . Reflect on the types of humiliation. You may not have experienced them but you may have friends who may have been humiliated in such ways ....

Brian Ward contributed on 1st July 2012 with:
17 Anything that contributes to the denial of empowerment for a person to reach self actualisation or post-individual consciousness.
18 Anything that causes or contributes to a loss of empathy within a person.
19 Invasion of the physical or mental person

• Beware of Humiliating
Rhymed reflections for psychological repair
by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, Cofounder, The World Dignity University initiative (7th August 2012)
A rhymed reflection by Francisco Gomes de Matos

When a person we hatefully humiliate
dehumanizingly, shamefully we act

When a human being oppressively humiliate
the worst type of indignity becomes a fact

We a group of persons violently we humiliate
the humiliation may backfire and our character we devastate

If one day we seem to be inordinately angry with someone ,let's beware of humiliating
Why ? One day we may be subject to humiliation by a person's heartless infuriating

• The History of Humankind is a History of Humiliation but also of Dignification
A rhymed reflection by by Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, Cofounder, The World Dignity University initiative (7th August 2012)

If, on the one hand, the history of Humankind is a history of edification
On the other hand, the history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation

The history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation
Sad examples: age/class/ethnic/gender/race discrimination

The history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation
A sad example:economic deprivation

The history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation
A sad example: population dislocation

The history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation
A sad example: political domination

The history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation
A sad example: environmental devastation

The history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation
A sad example: communicative intimidation

The history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation
A sad example: consumer exploitation

Please add to the above. It is an open-ended listing.
The history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation
A sad example: forced emigration
The history of Humankind is also a history of humiliation
A sad example: territorial occupation

• Being Rather than Doing or Having
by Linda Hartling, August 8, 2012
BEING!
BEING IN RELATIONSHIP!
BEING RELATIONAL BEINGS!
BEING RELATIONAL BEINGS IN DIGNITY!
BEING RELATIONAL BEINGS IN MUTUAL DIGNITY!
BEING MUTUALLY DIGNIFYING RELATIONAL BEINGS!