by Jaqueline B. Ramos
(TED)
US lawyer
Steven Wise, president of the NGO Nonhuman Rights Project (NHRP), summed up in
just less than 15 minutes the meaning behind the idea that chimpanzees are
rather subjects of law and shall be regarded by the courts as people, not as
objects.
In a talk
at TED event held in March this year in the city of Vancouver, Wise begins
questioning that today an object like a pencil, for example, is legally viewed
the same way as a chimpanzee or any other animal. The status of
"personhood," which gives an uncountable number of rights, is a
privilege of human beings - and in the United States also of corporations and
religious organizations.
But why
chimpanzees, animals with proven advanced cognitive capabilities, feelings,
culture and memories holders and highly social beings continue to be viewed as
objects, legally speaking? This concern, according to Wise, took his attention 30
years ago and he was determined to study the way to bring down the
"injustice" of that barrier that separates animals and men. Rethink
the way chimpanzees and other animals are treated legally is, above all, a
moral duty.
But like
any other moral change in human history, it is no easy task - and fast - to
win. Wise always knew that and was sure it would take too much time studying
before presenting his arguments, representing the great apes, in front of a
judge.
To plan the
cases on behalf of chimpanzees living imprisoned (mostly caged in medical
research laboratories), the lawyer sought precedents in history and quotes the
case of the slave James Somerset in England in the eighteenth century, who had his
right to Habeas Corpus pioneering
granted and opened many doors for the abolition of slavery in the world.
After 28
years of hard study, Wise and the NHRP team filed the first lawsuits on behalf
of chimpanzees using the same legal recourse of Habeas Corpus, which is now exclusive to human beings. They are
being presented in the state of New York and advances are happening. It is not
with the granting of the right to freedom yet, but a more discerning and
careful assessment of the cases presented is being achieved.
What
previously was denied on the grounds of being “persons right only”, now begins,
slowly, to be seen in a new light by the legal system. As Wise at the end of
his speech, quoting Winston Churchill, says: "This is not the end. This is
not even the beginning of the end. But perhaps this is the end of the beginning
...”.
Watch Steven Wise’s talk in TED Vancouver:
Related article: Why we must give the great apes the right of
bodily liberty
