Claiming equal rights for primates

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.

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.