Great ape personhood 1

Great ape personhood

Great ape personhood is a movement to extend
personhood and some legal protections to the four
non-human members of the Hominidae or great ape
family: bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and
orangutans.[1]
Well-known advocates include primatologists Jane
Goodall and Dawn Prince-Hughes, Richard Dawkins,
former Professor for the Public Understanding of
Science at Oxford University, Peter Singer, professor
of philosophy at Princeton University, and legal scholar
Steven Wise.[2] Bonobos, members of the great ape family

Early legislation
On February 28, 2007 the parliament of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain, passed the world's
first legislation that would effectively grant legal personhood rights to all great apes. The act sent ripples out of the
region and across Spain, producing public support for the rights of great apes. On June 25, 2008 a parliamentary
committee set forth resolutions urging Spain to grant the primates the rights to life and liberty. If approved "it will
ban harmful experiments on apes and make keeping them for circuses, television commercials, or filming illegal
under Spain's penal code."

These precedents followed years of European legal efforts. In 1992, Switzerland amended its constitution to
recognize animals as beings and not things. However, in 1999 the Swiss constitution was completely rewritten. A
decade later, Germany guaranteed rights to animals in a 2002 amendment to its constitution, becoming the first
European Union member to do so.
New Zealand granted basic rights to five great ape species in 1999. Their use is now forbidden in research, testing, or
teaching.[3]
Several European countries (including Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden) completely banned the use of great
apes in animal testings.[4]

Stances

Advocacy
Well-known advocates are primatologist Jane Goodall, appointed a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations to
fight the bushmeat trade and end ape extinction; Richard Dawkins, former Professor for the Public Understanding of
Science at Oxford University; Peter Singer, professor of philosophy at Princeton University; and attorney and former
Harvard professor Steven Wise.
Goodall's longitudinal studies revealed the social and family life of chimps to be very similar to that of human beings
in some respects. She herself calls them individuals, and says they relate to her as an individual member of the clan.
Laboratory studies of ape language ability began to reveal other human traits, as did genetics, and eventually three of
the great apes were reclassified as hominids.
This, plus rising ape extinction and the animal rights movement has put pressure on nations to recognize apes as
having limited rights and being legal "persons." In response, the United Kingdom introduced a ban on research using
great apes, although testing on other primates has not been limited.
Great ape personhood 2

Writer and lecturer, Thomas Rose, makes the argument that granting legal rights afforded to humans to non-humans
is nothing new. He points out that in the majority of the world, "corporations are recognized as legal persons and are
granted many of the same rights humans enjoy, the right to sue, to vote and to freedom of speech." Dawn
Prince-Hughes has written that great apes meet all the standards set out for personhood: "self-awareness;
comprehension of past, present, and future; the ability to understand complex rules and their consequences on
emotional levels; the ability to choose to risk those consequences, a capacity for empathy, and the ability to think
abstractly."

Criticism
Gary Francione, while an animal rights advocate, criticizes the concept of granting personhood because the animal in
question is human-like, and argues instead that sentience is the only characteristic a being requires to have basic
rights.

Interpretation
Depending on the precise wording of any proposed or adopted declaration, personhood for the Great Apes may raise
questions concerning protections and obligations under national and international laws, such as:
• Articles 7–29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and 1961 Convention on the Reduction of
Statelessness regarding nationality and citizenship for persons
• Provisions 4 & 5 of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child

References
[1] Bhagwat, S. B. Foundation of Geology. Global Vision, 2009, pp. 232–235:

"The Hominidae form a taxonomic family, including five extant genera: humans, chimpanzees, gorillas,
bonobos and orangutans."
Groves, Colin P. "Great Apes: The Conflict of Gene-Pools, Conservation and Personhood" in Emily Rousham,
Leonard Freedman, and Rayma Pervan. Perspectives in Human Biology: Humans in the Australasian Region.
World Scientific, 1996, p. 31:
"The recognition that we as a species are not phylogenetically separated from other animals, but are
nested within the primate group known as the Great Apes, is no longer controversial. Goodman (1963)
proposed on this basis to include the great apes (orang utan, gorilla and chimpanzee) in the family
Hominidate, a view revived by Groves (1986) and increasingly adopted since then. Increasingly, too, the
vernacular term 'Great Apes' has come to be used as a pure synonym for Hominidae, so that humans are
also 'Great Apes.' The only remaining systemic controversy seems to be whether chimpanzees and
gorillas together form the sister-group of humans, or chimpanzees and humans together constitute the
sister-group of gorillas."
Karcher, Karen. "The Great Ape Project" in Marc Bekoff (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and
Animal Welfare. Greenwood, 2009, pp. 185–187:
"The Great Ape Project (GAP) seeks to extend the scope of three basic moral principles to all members
of what the GAP founders call the five great ape species (humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and
orangutans)."
[2] Goodall, Jane in Paola Cavalieri & Peter Singer (eds.) The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity. St Martin's Griffin, 1994.

Dawkins, Richard. "Gaps in the Mind" (http:/ / www. animal-rights-library. com/ texts-m/ dawkins01. htm) in
Paola Cavalieri & Peter Singer (eds.) The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity. St Martin's Griffin,
1994.
Great ape personhood 3

Cavalieri, Paola & Singer, Peter (eds.) The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity. St Martin's Griffin,
1994.
Motavalli, Jim. "Rights from Wrongs. A Movement to Grant Legal Protection to Animals is Gathering Force"
(http://www.emagazine.com/magazine-archive/rights-from-wrongs), E Magazine, March/April 2003.
[3] "A STEP AT A TIME: NEW ZEALAND’S PROGRESS TOWARD HOMINID RIGHTS" BY ROWAN TAYLOR (http:/ / www. animallaw.
info/ journals/ jo_pdf/ lralvol_7p35. pdf)
[4] http:/ / www. parlament. gv. at/ PAKT/ VHG/ XXII/ I/ I_00993/ fnameorig_043770. html

Further reading
• Great Ape Standing and Personhood – G.R.A.S.P. (http://personhood.org)
• The Great Ape Project (http://www.greatapeproject.org)
• Hall, Lee and Waters, Anthony Jon. "From Property to Person: The Case of Evelyn Hart" (http://www.
personhood.org/personhood/lawreview/), Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal, 1, 2000.
Article Sources and Contributors 4

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