Member-only story
Do You Know the History of Your Rights? What Even Are Rights?
Join me in learning about human and animal rights and being a part of history
It’s hard to overstate how lucky I am to have rights. But for most of my life, I haven’t known a lot about the history. I was often bored in history class and not applying it to what mattered to me. Now, all that’s changing. I am learning everything I can about the history of our rights. Although I still feel like I know little, I am writing this blog post to reflect on my learning so far, and hopefully inspire you to LOVE the history we are making.
First of all, rights include both human rights and animal rights. A human right is something you are entitled to simply because you are a human being. But what I want to point out is that a lot of human rights are actually animal rights, or should at least have an animal-encompassing version to them. You and I would still need and deserve many of the same rights that we currently have, even if our brains, bodies, and lives were nonhuman ones.
For example, the United Nations (UN) has stated, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” It is reasonable to believe torture is just as painful for many other-than-human animals as it is for us.
