Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’. While the concepts of freedom and equality appear easy to understand and the value of law has accompanied the development and progress of humankind, the authentic meaning of ‘dignity’ is perhaps the least obvious and recognisable of those enunciated, at least from a social point of view.
In this perspective, 1 May, the workers' day, becomes an auspicious occasion to give a shared meaning to the concept of dignity, linking it inseparably to a fundamental human action, work. Work is, in fact, the main, though not exclusive, means by which men and women citizens can have access to a dignified life. This should take place through legitimate, recognised and appreciable action, through which each person is placed in a position to express his or her personality to the fullest, such as to give rise to adequate compensation with which to individually contribute, through taxation, to social welfare.
On the other hand, we know how this often does not happen, due to jobs that do not offer any dignity to working men and women, or how when the work performed does not guarantee a sufficient income for those who work and their families, and how, finally, even today, work constitutes a risk to the safety of citizens, as the too many accidents at work, on a daily basis, demonstrate.
For these reasons, the University of Brescia, today and always, considers the relationship between dignity and work to be an inalienable and non-negotiable value and is committed to acting both within its own community and externally to implement this relationship, in the conviction that decent work is the foundation of our constitutional and therefore democratic order.