UK campaigners launch bill to give nature legal rights | Environment | The Guardian
Posted on October 24th, 2025
Justice for Animals and Nature
Sri Lanka exists in the stone age, metaphorically speaking, when it comes to recognition of the Rights of Animals and Nature.
The Justice for Animals and Nature was established in Sri Lanka for that purpose. To canvas public support for the Rights of Animals and Nature through legislative reform and thereby reconnect with our Buddhist Heritage which led the world on Animal Rights in the distant past.
It was King Devanampiyatissa (300 BC) who established the World’s First Wild Life Sanctuary at Mihintale after the epic encounter with Arahant Mahinda, whose remarkable pronouncement still reverberates throughout the world.
The declaration: The famous quote,
“O great king, the birds of the air and the beasts on the earth have an equal right to live and move about in any part of this land as thou. The land belongs to the people and all other beings and thou art only the guardian of it,”.
This was the central theme of Mahinda’s message about the responsible and compassionate governance of the land.
The Govt of Sri Lanka must re – embrace this message and re-establish its moral authority which our ancient Buddhist Kings had in great abundance.
In ancient times, people of neighboring countries referred to the Buddhist Sinhalese as Aryavamsa, or “noble race”. The term was used in reference to the Sinhalese adherence to Buddhist principles of non-harm and compassion toward all living beings.
This trait outshines every other talent that we are proud to boast of today. Kindness to animals was the defining yardstick of the Sinhalese in the past. But not any more. Today we kill innocent animals especially wild elephants at the drop of a hat with no punitive consequences flowing to the killer. We have lost our moral direction from the top to the bottom of our society. It is a national shame.
Go back to the Drawing Board.
Start with teaching kindness to living beings at the Montessori level to all children as part of educational reform. Let us regain the ‘Aryavamsa’ (noble race) prestige we had before the commencement of the colonial era in the 16th century.
The cultivation of empathy and compassion for others, human and non – human, far outweighs any other gain in school and life. Justice for Animals and Nature