Logo of the Great Apes Project

The Great Apes and Mallorca
Orangutans
On 28 February 2007, the Balearic Parliament approved a Proposition “No de Ley” (a preliminary proposal; not a law), to support to the legal recognition of nonhuman apes, granting them freedom from torture, mistreatment and unnecessary death. It is the first legislature in the world to grant legal rights to all the subfamilies - gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and bonobos- of the great apes species that also includes humans.

According the Pedro Pozas, Executive Director of Great Ape Project, Spain, “the decision of the Balearic Government to approve this Proposal, makes it a world-wide leader in the protection of the great apes and their habitat, as well as in the support of their rights.”

By declaring its support of fundamental rights for great apes, the Balearic Parliament has taken scientific evidence to the next level by establishing a legal recognition that these creatures are conscious, self-aware beings that should not be tortured, abused and neglected. The efforts by the Balearic Parliament to stop the oppression of intelligent and self-aware beings, who cannot speak for themselves, is an important step in the political arena of animal rights.

26 June 2008
Spain's Parliament has voiced its support for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in what will apparently be the first time any national legislature has called for such rights for non-humans. Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain to comply with the Great Ape Project, devised by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans.