{"id":760600,"date":"2020-05-22T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=760600"},"modified":"2020-05-22T08:00:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T12:00:50","slug":"liberation-pakistans-highest-court-recognizes-the-rights-of-nonhuman-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=760600","title":{"rendered":"LIBERATION: Pakistan&#8217;s Highest Court Recognizes the Rights of Nonhuman Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<blockquote  class=\"bs-quote bs-quote-1 bsq-t1 bsq-s1 bsq-left\">\n\t\t<div class=\"quote-content\">\n\t\t\t<p>The pandemic is an opportunity for humans to relate to the pain suffered by other living beings in captivity, denied the conditions and habitats created for their survival by the Creator.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>LAUREN CHOPLIN:<\/strong> The Islamabad High Court in Pakistan issued a decision that \u201cwithout any hesitation\u201d affirms the rights of nonhuman animals and specifically orders the release to sanctuary of an Asian elephant named Kaavan held in solitary confinement at the Marghazar Zoo&#8230; The NhRP (Non-human Right Project) sees this decision, which favorably references the NhRP\u2019s litigation, as a tremendous sign of progress in the global fight for nonhuman animal rights, which the NhRP initiated in the US in 2013&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Chief Justice Athar Minallah\u2019s decision, which came about as a result of three petitions filed on behalf of diverse species, begins with a reflection on how the COVID-19 crisis has presented \u201can opportunity for humans to introspect and relate to the pain and distress suffered by other living beings\u201d caused by \u201cthe arrogance\u201d of humans&#8230; In the decision, Judge Minallah refers to the NhRP\u2019s client Happy as an \u201cinmate\u201d at the Bronx Zoo and writes that \u201czoos do not serve any purpose except to display their living inmates as exhibits to visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also cites to Justice Alison Y. Tuitt\u2019s February 2020 decision in Happy\u2019s case in which she found that Happy \u201cis more than just a legal thing, or property. She is an intelligent, autonomous being who should be treated with respect and dignity, and who may be entitled to liberty.\u201d The Islamabad High Court is the second court outside the US to have cited to Tuitt\u2019s decision in the four months since it was issued and the latest to cite to New York Court of Appeals Judge Eugene Fahey\u2019s rejection of chimpanzees\u2019 legal \u201cthinghood\u201d in the NhRP\u2019s chimpanzee rights cases. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nonhumanrights.org\/media-center\/media-release-5-21-20-islamabad-high-court-recognizes-animal-rights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>SOURCE&#8230;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED VIDEO:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MmoYKZ0ncOM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAUREN CHOPLIN: The Islamabad High Court in Pakistan issued a decision that \u201cwithout any hesitation\u201d affirms the rights of nonhuman animals and specifically orders the release to sanctuary of an Asian elephant named Kaavan held in solitary confinement at the Marghazar Zoo&#8230; The NhRP (Non-human Right Project) sees this decision, which favorably references the NhRP\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":760601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,20,21,22,23,25],"tags":[27,28,30,32,34,35],"class_list":["post-760600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-justice","category-kisnship","category-morality","category-rights","category-welfare","tag-cruelty","tag-entertainment","tag-exploitation","tag-free-living","tag-personhood","tag-protection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=760600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":760602,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760600\/revisions\/760602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/760601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=760600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=760600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=760600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}