A Bold Convention
A proposed treaty drafted by the International Coalition for Animal Protection (ICFAP) and informed by the One Health concept, the Convention on Animal Protection for Public Health, Animal Well-Being, and the Environment (CAP) holds the promise of becoming the first umbrella treaty to advance the interests of animals on the international stage.
Championed by a diverse array of stakeholders, CAP creates a much-needed space in which States and stakeholders can address critical issues concerning our interactions with and need to protect animals on an ongoing and evolving basis.
The current version of the CAP represents two years of drafting with significant input from a broad range of experts in animal law, environmental law, public health, and international trade and policy. CAP’s umbrella framework establishes minimum standards that govern our interactions with and treatment of animals. Issue-focused protocols, which could be agreed under the framework treaty, will allow States to negotiate specific additional standards. By providing for biennial Conferences of the Parties, the treaty will empower States to consistently engage on these issues and to adapt to changing societal norms or conditions, scientific discoveries, and more.
So concretely what does the CAP seek to do?
CAP's Principles
- Humans and animals share an evolutionary heritage and co-exist within interdependent ecosystems. Animals’ individual and collective well-being and the health of their supporting ecosystems are integral to public health, environmental protection, and conservation.
- As sentient beings, animals have intrinsic value. Humans have an ethical obligation to act responsibly toward animals. No animal should be subjected to cruel acts or unnecessary suffering.
- When animals are under human control, a positive obligation exists to ensure their well-being by providing them with an adequate, species-specific environment and care appropriate for their particular needs.
- Subjecting animals to physical, psychological, or environmental stressors is detrimental to their well-being and increases their susceptibility to contracting and transmitting disease.
- Protecting global public health requires States to take a precautionary approach in regulating human interaction with animals to prevent the emergence and spread of pathogens.
CAP's main objectives
Provide a comprehensive, non-regressive, legal framework on animal welfare as part of the ONE HEALTH approach.
Animal welfare
- Urge States to take comprehensive measures to ensure the well-being of animals, including animals under human control and wild animals. Prevention of cruelty or unnecessary pain towards animals.
- Prevention of cruelty or unnecessary pain towards animals.
Animals and the environment
- Promote the conservation of animals within their natural habitat.
- Urge stakeholders to understand the importance of animal protection in the preservation of our environment.
Animals and public health
- Minimize spread of pathogens.
- Regulate high-risk practices.
- Prevent antimicrobial resistance.
CAP Drafting Committee
Nigel Blackaby KC is a partner at international firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Washington DC. He is an international arbitration practitioner who focuses his pro bono work on international animal law. In that context, he is a member of the Steering Committee of the ABA Section on International Animal Law and was part of the four strong commission (including Joan Schaffner (GWU), Raj Reddy (L&C) and David Favre (Michigan State)) that prepared the report and resolution in favor of an international convention on animal protection recently passed by the ABA House of Delegates as resolution 101C. He is active in promoting and disseminating CAP through outreach to various State agencies, international organizations, and regional/local NGOs. He also provides advice on legal issues to animal shelters internationally and is patron of an animal shelter in Colombia, Fundacion Animalove.
Daina Bray is a Clinical Lecturer in Law with the Law, Ethics and Animals Program at Yale Law School, where she leads the Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Litigation Initiative. She previously served as general counsel of the nonprofits Mercy for Animals and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and practiced with major international law firms in the areas of litigation and international arbitration. Daina is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates and a past chair of the ABA International Animal Law Committee, the ABA TIPS Animal Law Committee, and the Tennessee Bar Association Animal Law Section. She received a JD from Stanford Law School with pro bono distinction, a BA in international studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead scholar, a Fulbright scholarship for research in environmental education, and the 2021 ABA Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award.
David Favre has been a professor of law at Michigan State University College of Law for forty-four years. He served as Dean of the College for five years and continues to teach in the area of Property Law, Animal Law, and International Environmental Law. Professor Favre has written a number of articles and books dealing with animal issues including such topics as animal cruelty, wildlife law, animal rights, ethics of animal use, and international control of animal trade. His books include the casebook Animal Law: Welfare, Interest, and Rights (3rd ed. 2020), the ethics book Respecting Animals (2018), a legal development book, The Future of Animal Law (2021), and a discussion of the treaty CITES in International Trade in Endangered Species. He introduced the concept of 'Living Property' which was developed in a number of law review articles over the past decade. He has organized international conferences on animal law and has presented to international audiences on a wide assortment of topics. He created and is editor-in-chief of the largest animal legal web resource, www.animallaw.info. Now residing on a farm in Lower Michigan, Professor Favre shares his space with sheep, chickens and the usual assortment of dogs and cats.
Laurie Morgan is an attorney advisor for the Commercial Law Development Program of the US Department of Commerce. She received her Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center (Washington, DC), where she was a Global Law Scholar, and her bachelor degree, cum laude, in International Justice from Leiden University College (The Hague, The Netherlands). She has contributed to publications for the Hague Institute for Global Justice and the Georgetown Journal of International Law. Her article on Reparations at the International Criminal Court will be published in Transnational Law and Governance Routledge Book Series in 2022.
An Assistant Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School, Raj directs the Animal Law Program at the Center for Animal Law Studies, the first of its kind in the United States. Outside of Lewis & Clark, Raj chairs the International Subcommittee of the Animal Law Section of the American Bar Association and is a board member for Minding Animals International. He has advanced human and animal interests through his work with the U.S.- based Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Human Rights Law Network in New Delhi, India.
Joan Schaffner received a B.S. in mechanical engineering (magna cum laude) and J.D. (Order of the Coif) from the University of Southern California, and a M.S. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joan is Faculty Co-Director of the GW Law Animal Legal Education Initiative, leads the Animal Welfare Project, and teaches Civil Procedure, Sexuality and the Law, Remedies, and Legislation and Regulation. Joan's scholarship focuses on animal protection law. Ze has presented on animal law panels and conferences world-wide. Joan is the author of the book Introduction to Animals and the Law, of several book chapters including 'Animal Cruelty and the Law: Permitted Conduct' in Animal Cruelty: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding 'Valuing Nature in Environmental Law: Lessons for Animal Law and the Valuation of Animals' in What Can Animal Law Learn from Environmental Law? and 'Value, wild animals and law' in Animal Welfare and International Environmental Law: From Conservation to Compassion, and numerous articles.
