Sentience Politics is an anti-speciesist political think tank with the goal of reducing the suffering of all sentient beings. Founded in 2013, their activities include political campaigns—such as ballot initiatives for sustainable food, fundamental rights for primates or a ban on factory farming. The organization also conducts research on how to most effectively reduce the suffering of human and non-human sentient beings. Sentience Politics was established as a project of the Effective Altruism Foundation, whose other projects include Raising for Effective Giving and the Foundational Research Institute. Sentience Politics is now an independent Swiss association.
In June 2016, Sentience Politics began collecting signatures for a ballot initiative on fundamental rights for primates in Basel, Switzerland. The proposed reforms would revise the cantonal constitution to include "right to life and respect for the physical and mental integrity" for non-human primates. According to Sentience Politics, Basel's existing animal welfare regulations are not sufficient to protect primates from death and suffering, for example in pharmaceutical experiments and in confinement at the Basel Zoo. If adopted, the reform would allow observational studies on primates but very few medical experiments, and would require the Basel Zoo to make significant changes in its primate breeding and enclosures. The campaign is supported by several Green Party members. According to project manager Meret Schneider, the campaign is a first step in extending rights to non-human animals.
Sustainable food
On October 10, 2016, Sentience Politics, along with animal advocacy organizations Vebu and the Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries began collecting signatures for a citizen’s initiative in Berlin Kreuzberg that would require all schools and the town hall to offer a vegan option every day. This is the first vegan citizen’s initiative in Germany. They need to collect signatures from 3% of the electorate by April 2017. There are about 95,000 vegans in Berlin, and the city is considered the vegan capitol of Europe with more than 50 vegan restaurants. Sentience Politics has launched similar initiatives in Zurich, Basel and Lucerne, Switzerland. Sentience Politics explained to House of Democracy and Human Rights that the vegan options will help mitigate climate change. The initiative will also help reduce the suffering of farmed animals. There has been resistance from cafeteria directors, who fear that the vegan options would cost more. The District Office estimates that a vegan meal would cost 1.25 Euro more than a conventional meal.
Initiative to ban factory farming in Switzerland
In 2018, Sentience Politics started gathering signatures for a people's initiative to ban factory farming in Switzerland. In September 2019, the initiative committee submitted more than 100,000 verified signatures in the Swiss capital of Bern. The Swiss Federal Council has announced that they will present a direct counter proposal to the initiative.
