The Rights of Apes, and Duties of Government Officials

It's official:  what differentiates us from chimpanzees is not
our intelligence, our ability to deal with the abstract, or our
ability to tell jokes. According to <a href="http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Appella…; target="”_blank”">the
decision of a five-member New York state appellate panel yesterday</a>,
"Unlike human beings, chimpanzees cannot bear any legal duties,
submit to societal responsibilities or be held legally accountable
for their actions. In our view, it is this incapability to bear any
legal responsibilities and societal duties that renders it
inappropriate to confer upon chimpanzees the legal rights ... that
have been afforded to human beings."<br>
<br>
In short, rights depend on duties, responsibilities, and
accountability. That's pretty much what government ethicists have
been saying. The right to run for and hold public office, the right
to get a government contract, grant, or permit, the right to lobby
government officials, even the right to be a citizen, all these
rights come with duties. Without those duties, there are no rights.<br>
<br>

This is especially true of legislative immunity, the non-individual
right of legislators not to be tried outside their body. This right
does not override legislators' fiduciary duty to citizens not to put
their personal interests, or the personal interests of those close
to them, ahead of the public interest. This is why legislative
immunity should not apply to government ethics matters, and these
matters should be handled outside the legislature, by a government
ethics program.<br>
<br>
Like rights, these duties are central to our democratic form of
government. As the appellate panel says in the decision, "[T]he
ascription of rights has historically been connected with the
imposition of societal obligations and duties. Reciprocity between
rights and responsibilities stems from principles of social
contract, which inspired the ideals of freedom and democracy at the
core of our system of government."<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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