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Human rights v animal rights: seamless expressions of empathy?

By Stephen Keim and Jordan Sosnowski - posted Monday, 31 December 2012


For activists, the constraints of time, energy and resources mean that choices must be made as to the particular field in which one seeks to correct the injustices that we see in too much abundance around us.

Those constraints should not lead us to accept that other injustices, on which others spend their time, are less important or more acceptable because they are not the ones to which we devote our energy.

Even if multi-focussed activity is not possible for us as individuals, we should appreciate the work of others who fight injustice in a different sphere to that in which we fight ourselves.

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The enemy of most people who campaign against injustice is a lack of empathy on the part of those whom we seek to persuade and enlist to our cause. The ability to feel empathy, as the famous quote from George Steiner at the beginning of the article illustrates, can fall away even as the injustice involves cruelty to many.

In our opinion, it is important to encourage the ability to feel empathy both for humans and the animals with whom we share this small planet. It is a precious commodity. We should not let it be wasted.

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This article was first published in Justinian.



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About the Authors

Stephen Keim has been a legal practitioner for 30 years, the last 23 of which have been as a barrister. He became a Senior Counsel for the State of Queensland in 2004. Stephen is book reviews editor for the Queensland Bar Association emagazine Hearsay. Stephen is President of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights and is also Chair of QPIX, a non-profit film production company that develops the skills of emerging film makers for their place in industry.

Jordan Sosnowski is an Associate Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. She graduated from Monash University with a Master of Laws, Juris Doctor and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland, majoring in Philosophy and English Literature. Jordan is the recipient of a Summer Research Grant from Michigan State University and is currently working in the field of legal research for the Animal Legal & Historical Web Center.

Other articles by these Authors

All articles by Stephen Keim
All articles by Jordan Sosnowski

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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