Swiss Review 2/2021

Swiss Review / April 2021 / No.2 21 Society JÜRG STEINER Imagine the scene. A primate is sitting in court. Its lawyer is summing upher argument in a case that has beenbrought because the primate feels its life has been put in danger. Will it soon be possible – in Basel at least – for primates to bring their own “human rights cases” to court? Will inter- preters have to specialise inmonkey speak?Will we be pro- viding apes with legal support?Will child and adult protec- tion agencies have to extend their area of responsibility to include the 300 species of non-human primates? Campaigners in the canton of Basel-Stadt want to push through a popular initiative that would grant primates “fundamental rights to life as well as physical and mental integrity”. In biological terms, humans also belong to the primate family – reason enough for the “primate initiative” to provoke some eye-catching responses and questions since it was launched in 2016. What is certain is that the shock waves will reverberate abroad if the voters of Basel-Stadt approve the initiative (set to be put to the electorate in 2022). Never before will animals anywhere in the world have been awarded fundamental rights as a re- sult of direct democracy. From the outset, the authors of the initiative have de- nied that they are trying to extend all human rights to non-human primates or suggesting that we should be hu- manising primates or putting them on an equal footing with humans. For example, they say it would be absurd to give primates other basic rights such as freedom of expres- sion, freedom of assembly or religious freedom, because primateswouldnever be able to exercise these. On the other hand, they insist that there is neuroscientific and behav- ioural evidence to show that primates are communicative, sensitive, empathic, social creatures, and that a constitu- tional article to protect primates fromviolent death aswell as physical and psychological suffering is completely justi- fied, given that current laws fall far short of achieving this. Fundamental rights for primates? The voters of Basel-Stadt are to decide whether all primates in their canton should have fundamental rights. Is this just monkey business, or is there more at stake? Humans granting primates a “right to life”? An initiative in Basel-Stadt wants to achieve just that. Photo: iStockphoto