strategy
Claiming equal rights for primates
Synonyms:
Supporting declaration of the rights of great apes Context:
Apes share 98% of their genes with humans. They are able to show symptoms of boredom, anxiety and psychosis; they form lifelong attachments and grieve when these are broken; they use language, think aloud, plan ahead, make moral judgements, deliberately deceive others, and remember the names of those whom they have not seen for years.Apes and humans should form part of the same community of equals. As with young or intellectually impaired humans, human guardians must safeguard the rights and interests of apes and act in an advocacy role on their behalf in the law courts and elsewhere.
Implementation:
The Great Ape Project was launched in 1993 by a number of distinguished researchers who argue the need for a revolutionary moral reassessment of human relationship with the apes. They assert that chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans are so similar to human beings that they should be recognized as having similar basic rights -- particularly the rights to life, the protection of liberty and the prohibition of torture. The aim of the project is to liberate the apes, to protect land on their behalf, to end their use in medical research and their appearance in zoos, and to have their rights recognized by law and accepted by the United Nations. The Great Ape Project won the Social Inventions Award 1993 of the Institute for Social Inventions. Counter Claim:
With the human population there is a smooth continuum of mental and emotional aptitudes, from babies and people in comas through to fully self-aware and sentient beings.. It would be impossible and impractical to draw a line anywhere in this continuum, so we rightly do not bother to try. There is a clear discontinuity between primates and humans which can and should be used to set the boundaries of human rights. Broader:
Recognizing animal rights Facilitates:
Conserving primates Problems:
Threatened species of HominidaeValues:
Rights Organizations:
Great Ape Project Institute for Social Inventions References:
Albery, Nicholas; Mezey, Matthew and Ratcliffe, Peter: Social Innovations: a compendiumCavalieri, Paola and Singer, Peter: The Great Ape Project: equality beyond humanity Subjects:
Birds, Mammals → PrimatesLaw → Agreements
Type Classification:
D: Detailed strategies Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
