Spanish Socialist Workers' Party proposes human rights bill for great apes

May 16, 2006

Spain’s Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE), the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, and the Confederación de Los Verdes, the Green Party, proposed a bill to grant some human rights to all great apes (Hominidae), which include humans, bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans. Humanity shares about 97% of its genome with the great apes.

The proposal was submitted by Francisco Garrido, a delegate of the Confederación de Los Verdes, and is inspired by the Declaration on Great Apes published by the Great Ape Project. Founded in 1993, the Great Ape Project (GAP), calls for an extension of moral egalitarianism to encompass all great apes. The Declaration on Great Apes demands the right to live, the protection of individual liberty and the prohibition of torture for all great apes.

The proposal does not assign the lesser apes gibbons (Hylobates), siamangs (Symphalangus) or the new world anthropoids (Platyrrhines) similar rights. The latter include the species of the capuchin monkeys (Cebinae), a tool using species that possibly demonstrates a degree of self-awareness in the mirror test experiment.

The proposal is scheduled to be discussed in parliament at the end of May. After New Zealand, Spain would be the second country to grant special rights to apes.

Reactions to the proposal
The archbishop of Pamplona and Tudela, Fernando Sebastián, opposed the proposal as ridiculous, given the fact that monkeys would be granted more rights than unborn human embryos.

The president of the Spanish section of Amnesty International, Delia Register, expressed surprise at the idea to grant human rights to great apes when, at the present time, they aren't granted to all human beings.