Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare (UDAW) — DRAFT, NEVER ADOPTED

This record must be read with its status stated first, because the status is the most important fact about it. The Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare was never adopted. It is not a binding treaty, not a UN declaration, and it has no legal or institutional authority of its own. It was never brought to a vote at the UN General Assembly. It is held in this bank as evidence of a stated aspiration, clearly distinguished from every ratified instrument beside it.

It was not issued by any government or intergovernmental body. It originated at the Manila Conference on Animal Welfare in 2003 and was revised at the Costa Rica Steering Committee Meeting in 2005, driven by animal-welfare non-governmental organisations, with World Animal Protection, then known as WSPA, acting as Secretariat. WOAH passed a resolution supporting its development in principle, but WOAH did not author it. Anyone reaching for an official animal-welfare standard should go to WOAH's own Terrestrial Animal Health Code, which is held separately in this bank on a different footing.

No single canonical final text exists, because the declaration was never finalised. The version archived here was fetched from a secondary NGO archive hosting the 2005 draft, and it contains bracketed passages that were still being negotiated when the draft stalled, such as the word state and the clause about the role of veterinarians. Those brackets have been left in exactly as published rather than tidied away, because they are themselves evidence of the text's unfinished condition. Any future search for a more authoritative copy of this same draft will still find it materially unofficial, since no adoption ever occurred to produce a canonical version.

What the draft says is worth recording on its own terms. Its preamble recognises that animals are living, sentient beings and therefore deserve due consideration and respect; that animal welfare includes animal health; that humans share this planet with other species and other forms of life and that all forms of life co-exist within an interdependent ecosystem; and that many states already have systems of legal protection for animals, domestic and wild, whose continued effectiveness should be ensured and extended. It notes the importance of WOAH's ongoing standard-setting work, acknowledges that the humane use of animals can bring major benefits to humans, and points to the five freedoms and the three Rs as valuable guidance for the use of animals.

Its four operative principles are that the welfare of animals shall be a common objective for all states; that the standards each state attains shall be promoted, recognised and observed through improved national and international measures, with bracketed language acknowledging significant social, economic and cultural differences between societies while asking each to care for and treat animals humanely and sustainably; that all appropriate steps shall be taken to prevent cruelty to animals and reduce their suffering; and that appropriate welfare standards should be further developed for farm animals, companion animals, animals in scientific research, draught animals, wildlife and animals in recreation. The draft also states that its provisions do not affect the rights of any state, which is one of several places where its unresolved bracketed language sits directly in the operative text.