The Spanish parliament has taken the first step towards granting basic ‘human’ rights to apes. This is an idea we’ll hear more of in the years to come. After all, the great apes are our closest relatives and we are ourselves apes. In fact, there is an argument that the only reason we have our own taxonomical group is due to vanity, and that we don’t warrant it scientifically. Still, it’s pretty obvious that apes are self-aware and suffer similar emotions to us and therefore have the greatest claim to an extension of basic rights which up to now have been regarded as our exclusive preserve.

Great apes should have the right to life and freedom, according to a resolution passed in the Spanish parliament, in what could become landmark legislation to enshrine human rights for chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and bonobos.

The environmental committee in the Spanish parliament has approved resolutions urging the country to comply with the Great Apes Project, founded in 1993, which argues that “non-human hominids” should enjoy the right to life, freedom and not to be tortured.

See Also: The Great Ape Project