Pregledni rad
https://doi.org/10.31141/zrpfs.2025.62.155.53
Protection of Animal Rights through Acts of International Law
Žaklina Harašić
orcid.org/0000-0002-4395-3114
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Splitu
Sažetak
The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of animal rights protection through
international acts, namely declarations and conventions, as the most important acts in that area.
The insufficient protection of animals in national legal systems has resulted in the adoption of a
number of conventions and acts that should help to raise the level of legal protection standards for
certain categories of animals. This paper consists of four parts. In the first and introductory part, the
coexistence of humans and animals, and the necessity of protecting animals, both for animals and
for humans are pointed out. Then, animal rights in general, the problem of defining animal rights as
a legal branch, and the goal of that legal branch are discussed. In the second part, starting from the
General Declaration on Animal Rights from 1978 and the General Declaration on Animal Welfare
from 2000, the concepts of rights and welfare are explained. In the third part, the protection of the
rights of certain categories of animals (e.g. birds, whales, tuna, polar bears) and actions towards
them (e.g. slaughtering, conducting experiments) from the perspective of international conventions
which illustrate some of them are all considered. The fourth part is the conclusion which contains
a turning point in the discussion about animal rights. In this paper, two, among other, problems
of international law are pointed out- the absence of consent to transform the aforementioned
declarations into conventions, which would be necessary, since conventions, unlike declarations,
have legal force, and the problems of implementing both types of acts are pointed out, for which one
can say represent leges imperfectae (i.e. norms without prescribed penalties).
Ključne riječi
animal rights; animal rights and welfare; international declarations; international conventions; (un)enforceability of provisions of international acts
Hrčak ID:
331241
URI
Datum izdavanja:
31.3.2025.
Posjeta: 358 *