UN Day Marks the Moment to Think About A Global, Binding Law for All Animals
On United Nations Day, we remember how much of the world came together after World War II to forge a new future. One that focused on peace, universal human rights, and sustainable progress. While the United Nations history is complex, it has consistently set benchmarks for human conduct on a global scale.
Today, we ask that we all begin to focus on our responsibility to animals. For decades, this fundamental issue has been consistently overlooked, and currently there is no binding international legal framework to protect animals. Animal protection is not on the UN agenda. This absence affects billions of sentient creatures. From the stray dogs and cats on urban streets to the working horses supporting family livelihoods in developing nations to the wildlife whose habitats are increasingly threatened.
It’s time for us to take a necessary step. One possibility is the United Nations Convention on Animal Health and Protection or UNCAHP. childhood dog Rusty helped her see that animals have personalities and feelings long before her studies in Africa. At Global Strays, we see that same truth every day in our work with dogs and the families who love them.
The UNCAHP: Visionary yet Realistic
Global Strays supports the initiative to propose the UN Convention on Animal Health and Protection (UNCAHP) to the UN General Assembly. Initiated by the Global Animal Law (GAL) Association, UNCAHP is a landmark framework convention—a comprehensive, future-proof legal instrument.
UNCAHP would be a legally binding treaty. Treaties require member states to implement the Convention’s laws into their own national legislation, providing the legal teeth necessary to mandate real-world change and governmental accountability.
The Convention provides a framework that is both realistic and visionary:
🐾 Holistic Coverage: It is all-encompassing, covering every category of animal: companion animals, farmed animals, animals used in research, and wild animals.
🐾 One Health/One Welfare: UNCAHP endorses the crucial One Health/One Welfare approach, which recognizes that animal protection is inseparable from human welfare and environmental health. This moves animal protection out of a niche concern and into the mainstream global development agenda.
🐾 Fundamental Principles: It explicitly recognizes that animals are sentient beings with intrinsic worth and requires countries to strengthen human obligations of responsibility and care.
It can be tempting to view a UN treaty as an idealistic piece of paper; however establishing a legally binding framework, like the UNCAHP, is a powerful catalyst for long-term change—even when local enforcement is currently weak.
Even if under-enforced, the laws set into place by UNCAHP would be a declaration of a government’s ultimate obligation and a mandate for civil society. UNCAHP does three things:
Establishes Non-Cruelty as Law: For the 680 million stray dogs and cats facing neglect in countries with fragmented or non-existent animal cruelty laws, this treaty creates the necessary legal foundation to push local governments toward humane stray population management (e.g., spay/neuter campaigns and anti-cruelty enforcement).
Creates Political Leverage for the Neglected: Animals like working horses are often excluded from policy, but UNCAHP is all-encompassing.bUNCAHP will give organizations the necessary political leverage to demand local governments finally extend veterinary resources, training, and legal protections to working animals.
Sets the Goal: UNCAHP sets a high standard for care and responsibility, giving all advocates, donors, and policymakers a shared, legally defined vision to pursue.
Anchoring animal protection at the UN is a central condition to achieving a better health and welfare for all worldwide. On this UN Day we urge the Member States to propose and support the adoption of UNCAHP. It is the only pathway to ensuring truly global, systemic, and legally enforceable protection for all animals.
We are calling on world leaders to commit to this future. Your signature on our upcoming petition will send a clear message: the world is ready to make animal welfare a matter of international law.