Is the Human Dignity of Those Deprived of Their Liberty Protected in Colombia?

Human dignity, as the foundation and principle of the Social State of Law, is not the result of chance, it is the outcome of a conceptual, philosophical and theological development and of social and liberal revolutions that accomplished its recognition as an inherent value of human beings. This way, such concept became integrated into the positive normative system and into international instruments, to which Colombia abides, mandatory for the States. However, nowadays, the recognition of the inherent dignity of human beings and its positivization in different Colombian State regulations does not guarantee its comprehensive protection, especially for people who are deprived of their liberty. Such population has a legal bond with the State, which is obliged to protect their dignity. Due to this obligation being unfulfilled, the Colombian Constitutional Court has been forced to declare on several occasions the unconstitutional state of affairs in relation to penitentiary facilities and the prison system and has determined that the State has the obligation to protect all persons deprived of liberty by virtue of the human dignity that is inherent to them.