Direitos humanos e dignidade política da cidadania em Hannah Arendt

This article aims at addressing the issue of human rights and citizenship from the perspective of Hannah Arendt’s political philosophy. Firstly, the article explores the human rights foundational illusion upon the situation of stateless persons and refugees, a situation which leads the author to formulate the concept of citizenship as the right to have rights. Further, it analyses the elements of her political theory, such as: freedom, action, diversity and public space, which, interconnected to each other, allows the creation of a concept of citizenship based on real participation of the citizens in the political organization of a community, in contrast to a merely formal concept of citizenship. Finally, it addresses the system council where citizenship is understood as action experienced in public space, thus favoring the possibility of realization of human rights, exercised as the political dignity of citizens.