Dignitarian Constitutionalism: Social Rights and Human Dignity in the Colombian Constitutional Court

As a social state governed by the rule of law, Colombia is committed to the protection of social rights. The Colombian Constitutional Court has carried out judicial work in pursuit of this objective and, to this end, has frequently resorted to the prob-lematic concept of human dignity. This paper rests on the premise that human dignity always has contextual meaning (Sprachspiel) and has two objectives. First, it explains the meaning of human dignity for the Constitutional Court, and affirms that it is a polyse-mic term, but with a delimited conceptual context. Second, it shows through specific cases how the Court has ruled to promote respect for social rights based on human dignity. The paper applies a systemic methodology, as it focuses only on the context of the Colombian Constitutional Court.