Syrian refugees’ right to human dignity in reception centers of Greece: An analysis of the right to an adequate standard of living

Human dignity defined in terms of an adequate standard of living is a key figure within refugees’ treatment discourses. Respecting them as a vulnerable group of people forced to leave their homes for a wide variety of reasons and protecting their unalienable rights is always an issue at stake within societies, even in the most liberal and democratic states. The present paper problematizes the idea of providing humane living conditions for refugees as long as their asylum process is under consideration. Using a socio-legal approach in understanding human rights norms and laws, it is argued that these norms do not constitute independent values but are embedded in social, cultural and economic contexts. Through the lenses of the Greek society’s characteristics and specific needs, the study examines the necessity for international human rights norms’ translation and their framing into familiar for local people terms. The role of institutional and transnational actors is deemed to be determinant towards this direction by simply constituting mediators between the international or regional and the national level. Consequently, when a state or society itself is not able to realize the value of human rights norms and regulations and effectively implement them, non-state actors such as NGOs lay the foundations by providing the guidelines for local people and government officials to follow. Thus, delinking human rights ideas from the ambiguity and embedding them into each society’s context will be the main argument in order to approach refugees’ right to human dignity and adequate living standards. Negotiation for a better quality of living conditions and opportunities for improvement can also be encountered during the journey of this academic analysis.