Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty חוק יסוד: כבוד האדם וחירותו

Key provisions

• Protects life, body, and dignity; bars violations of property; bars arrest or imprisonment except by law
• Protects personal liberty and privacy. Everyone may leave Israel; Israeli citizens abroad have a right to enter.
• Section 8 'limitations clause', rights may be infringed only by a law befitting the values of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, for a proper purpose, and to an extent no greater than required
• Emergency regulations cannot amend or suspend this Basic Law. During a declared emergency, proportionate, time-limited restrictions on rights remain possible for a proper purpose under section 12.
• Binds all governmental authorities

Context

Enacted in 1992. The 1994 amendment added the basic-principles clause referring to the Declaration of Independence.

Notable amendments

• 1994: Conforming amendment adding a 'basic principles' section anchoring rights in the value of the human being and the sanctity of life, alongside the re-enactment of Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation

Today

The 1995 United Mizrahi Bank judgment recognized the constitutional status of the rights Basic Laws and judicial review of conflicting ordinary legislation. The Court upheld the statute challenged in that case.