Keynote Address at IVU World Vegetarian Congress 2006

To close the year, here’s an excerpt from the opening, keynote speaker at the 2006 IVU World Vegetarian Congress in Goa , Dada J. P. Vaswani. The October 2006 issue of the newsletter of the Vegetarian Society (Reverence for Life) of India contains a transcript of the speech. Below is an excerpt. (please excuse the use of ‘men’ to refer to all humans)

Men have their rights. Do animals have no rights? Men have their rights. Do they not have duties towards the animals who have befriended man since the dawn of creation: the dog, the horse, the cow? Do they have no rights? The time has come when all animal lovers should come together and formulate a charter of animal rights and a charter of man’s duties towards the animals. Every animal has certain fundamental rights and the very first right of every animal I believe, the very first right of every animal is the right to live, for we cannot take away that which we cannot give. And since we cannot give life to a dead creature, we have no right to take away the life of a living one.

The year 1789 is a landmark in the history of humanity. It was in that year over two centuries ago that the French National Assembly adopted a declaration of the rights of man. That was the beginning of a new era in the history of humanity. Until then, mean had no rights. Kings were sovereign’ they could do whatever they liked. The 18^th century gave rights to man. The 19^th century gave rights to slaves, for there was a time when slaves had no rights; they were treated as we treat animals today. … The 18^th century, as I said, gave rights to man. The 19^th century gave rights to slaves. The 20^th century has give rights to women. The 21^st century I verily believe will give rights to animals. That will be a great and glorious day in the history of humanity.