«CURRENT EVENTS»

DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF LIVING BEINGS

Approved of the International Workshop “Natural Rights of Nature” (“Tribune”-9), Kiev, May 16-18, 2003

The Declaration of the Rights of Living Beings is intended to promote formation of ethical attitude towards all life, a legal regulatory framework for relations between humans and beings of all biological species and forms.

Rights of living beings are specified standards of human fair attitude towards them as subjects. All life forms need specific conditions and resources, without which they cannot sustain full-value and independently. Defending the rights of living beings means granting them the possibility to live according to their biological essence, as they can do it

The human recognition of the rights of living beings is the essence of their moral protection and thereafter the legal one.

I. All species, subspecies, populations and other forms of living beings arisen and propagating through natural evolutionary and migration processes possess the following rights:

• a right for existence;
• a right for natural freedom in the natural habitat (a right for wildness);
• a right for the share of earth goods, essential for their existence;
• a right for legal protection;
• a right for freedom from responsibility to the human.

II. All living beings as individuals have the following rights:

• a right for life;
• a right for natural freedom and well-being in the natural habitat (a right for freedom);
• a right for the share of earth goods, essential for their existence;
• a right on protection against suffering from human faults;
• a right for freedom from responsibility to the human.

III. The following rights can also be acknowledged for living beings:

a) on the level of species, subspecies, and populations:

• a right for reparation from damages inflicted;
• a right for care (for example, Red Data Book species);

b) on the individual level:

• a right for legal protection;
• a right for dignity;
• a right for care (for example, for domestic and agricultural plants and animals and tamed wild animals).

IV. In case of a conflict between holders of different rights, rights of species, subspecies, and populations of rare and vulnerable species should be protected in the first turn.

The draft Declaration was elaborated by the Kiev Ecological and Cultural Center and the environmental organisation "Novaya volna" (New Wave), Rostov-na-Donu.