"Humanitarian organizations worldwide should collaborate in setting up an international court to judge cases of animal cruelty and specifically to assess the culpability of governments," says ethicist Professor Andrew Linzey, director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.
In the Global Guide to Animal Protection, a collaboration between the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and the University of Illinois Press, Professor Linzey argues that individuals and groups should be able to bring cases before the court where governments have failed to take reasonable steps to prevent systematic and widespread cruelty to animals.
"Although animal protection is obviously a matter of global concern, animal protectionists have sometimes been slow in recognizing this fact and have contented themselves with working on an issue-by-issue, country-by-country basis. But what this approach neglects is the need for international strategies to tackle what are global problems," Professor Linzey continues.
The author proposes that governments and industries found guilty, or failing to participate in hearings, would be named and shamed, as well as placed on a register, similar to Amnesty International's published list of countries that allow torture.
