The Core of Human Rights: Constitutional Meanings of Taking People as Essential

The constitution renders basic theories and core contents for the safeguard of fundamental human rights. Human dignity constitutes the core of human rights, which is testified by both positive constitutions and constitutional theories in western countries. Man’s dignity is the philosophical foundation that safeguards human rights in a constitution, the origin of human rights, and the limitation of restraining fundamental rights. “The country respects and safeguards human rights” is a normative expression but not a descriptive one, which contains certain value judgments and indicates that the concept of “taking people as essential” has been elevated to a notional idea by way of positive law. It forms the basis of China’s constitutionalism and is the foothold for us to take reference of other countries’ constitutionalism and human rights theories and institutions.