[1] The declaration has not been agreed and focus has largely shifted over to creating the more legally binding UN Convention on Animal Health and Protection (UNCAHP).
[4] In 2003 in the Philippines, the Manila Conference on Animal Welfare was attended by 19 government delegations with the European Council, United States and Saipan as observers.
[5] In 2005, the UDAW inter-governmental steering committee was formed and representatives of the governments of Kenya, India, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic and the Philippines agreed to champion the initiative.
They led a group of governments whose officials have stated support in the following years, including Cambodia, Fiji,[6] Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand,[7] Poland, Slovenia, Tanzania and the United Kingdom.
In May 2007, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) passed a resolution supporting the development of a UDAW in principle,[8] as did the Commonwealth Veterinary Association (CVA)[9] and the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE).
[10] In August 2008, the national veterinary associations of Chile, New Zealand, the UK,[11] the Philippines, Thailand[12] and Colombia have all given public backing for a UDAW.
It also invited the member states and the Commission, within their respective competencies, "to support, in principle, the UDAW initiative in the relevant international fora".
Perhaps the most prominent venture was the announcement (The Times, 17 October) in 1978 at the United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris of the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights.
More recently some of the world's leading animal welfare organisations have started campaigning for the United Nations to adopt a new declaration.