Great apes will have some rights in Spain

A resolution in support of the Great Ape Project has been passed by the Spanish parliament's environmental committee and is expected to become law. The law would give some basic rights, such as life and liberty, to great apes (chimps, orangs, gorillas).

This may be mostly a symbolic gesture, since Spain doesn't have a natural great ape population and isn't known to conduct any research on great apes. But it would be the first time a major government has given these rights to nonhuman animals.