A conversation with barrister Craig Tuck about law and the right to dignity.

In Bali, this week, New Zealand-raised barrister Craig Tuck hosted the first LawAid International Conference, which aims to advance human rights through connecting justice with human dignity within the transnational legal system. Lawyers, academics, and people who work at the coal face of social justice championed the incorporation of dignity into laws governing issues ranging from human rights, modern slavery, supply chains, and the high seas to the trafficking of workers into scam compounds and drug trafficking operations. Often quoted was Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist, who said: “That each person had something of transcendent value about them... we dispense that value at our serious peril.” The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt also spoke at the conference and with Tuck on the sidelines about the progression of human rights within international law and the need to promote dignity within a legal framework and in domestic judicial systems that are too often found wanting at best. As the conference heard, human dignity must be a cornerstone of the law and in the bigger picture in the near future that could impact legally on wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and Myanmar, and on autocratic governments around the world. It’s a complicated subject on the legal edge, as Tuck explains.