Earth Day 2018 (Sunday, April 22) will mark the 9th anniversary of the launch of the Humane Party. As per tradition, the HP will also release its bi-annual party platform on Earth Day.
The Humane Party emerged in 2009 as the U.S.’s—and perhaps the world’s—first vegan, abolitionist political party. The HP is fully vegan, in that all candidates, officers, and board members must be vegan. The HP is also fully abolitionist, in that it is expressly dedicated to passage and ratification of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution immediately abolishing all forms of slavery and emancipating all animals (the “Abolition Amendment”).
New this year
The 2018-19 HP platform includes two new sections: a preamble section, designed to provide a reader-friendly introduction and context for the remainder of the document; and a section devoted to one-time resolutions, intended to recognize and highlight those organizations and individuals who have helped lay the groundwork for the Humane Party. Among those predecessors recognized are William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator proto-abolitionist newspaper; Frederick Douglass and The North Star, proto-abolitionist newspaper; and Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the other organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, to whom National Civil Rights Day 2018 was dedicated.
Additions to the existing public policy section of the platform include express articulation of the HP’s commitment to universal health care; commitment to universal access to clean water sufficient to meet basic needs; commitment to universal access to education and job re-training; elaboration on the HP’s commitment to women’s rights; elaboration on the HP’s commitment to reform of the criminal justice system, including replacement of the incarceration paradigm; clarification of the HP’s position on genetically engineered organisms; elaboration on the HP’s commitment to animal and environmental protection; articulation of the HP’s commitment to passage of the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Faunacide (the “Faunacide Convention”); and elaboration on the HP’s commitment to humane education, including text contributed by the Institute for Humane Education.
Additions to the existing internal policy section of the platform include a non-negotiation policy, namely, a commitment to reject negotiation with anyone who currently holds captives for exploitation or sale.
Volunteer opportunities
Individuals interested in animal liberation, sex and gender equality under the law, social justice, and other issues faced by modern society are invited to submit the Humane Party volunteer application and become part of this historic movement.
The Humane Herald 
