Article

Transforming our world? Strengthening animal rights and animal welfare at the United Nations

Details

Citation

Schapper A & Bliss C (2023) Transforming our world? Strengthening animal rights and animal welfare at the United Nations. International Relations, 37 (3), pp. 514-537. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117823119329

Abstract
In this article, we argue that animal rights and welfare are largely neglected at the United Nations (UN) and in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN Sustainability Agenda is not transformative because it lacks a serious (re-)consideration of the relationship between human beings, non-human animals and other components of nature. We propose four ways to strengthen animal rights and animal welfare at the UN: (1) we suggest creating a UN organisation working on animal protection, (2) we support earlier ideas to include an additional SDG on animal welfare in the UN Sustainability Agenda, (3) we propose to strengthen animals rights within the rights of nature framework using the UN as a forum to advance non-anthropocentric norms, (4) we recommend introducing procedural rights for animals in projects linked to SDG funding. Our research is based on an integrative literature review and a document analysis of UN documents, declarations and resolutions.

Keywords
animal rights; animal welfare; sustainable development; transformative change; United Nations

StatusPublished
FundersThe Royal Society of Edinburgh
Publication date30/09/2023
Publication date online21/08/2023
Date accepted by journal24/06/2023
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/35756
ISSN0047-1178
eISSN1741-2862

People (1)

Professor Andrea Schapper

Professor Andrea Schapper

Professor, Politics

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