We Gave Two Talks at VegFest London, October 2019
Our Legal Counsel, Barbara Bolton, attended London VegFest this month to deliver two talks on different aspects of our campaign: our educational advertising campaign and how we have worked to defend the ads from relentless attempts to have them banned, and our legal work in terms of which we seek to promote veganism and animal rights by making use of our human rights.
Defending Go Vegan World’s Ads From Challenge
Go Vegan World’s educational ad campaign has run across the UK and Ireland, on buses, live screens in city centres, major televised sporting events, national newspapers….
However, behind the scenes they have faced continual efforts to prevent them from educating the public. There have been many refusals to run ads, and many complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency seeking to have ads banned.
In this talk we look at some of the complaints and how we successfully defended the ads:
The Q&A that immediately followed the talk can be viewed here:
Many thanks to Clara Mozes for filming.
More information about the attempts to have our ads banned can be found on our website, in particular:
https://goveganworld.com/landmark-judgement-animal-rights/
https://goveganworld.com/why-vegan/the-animals-we-use/dairy-take-babies-mothers/
https://goveganworld.com/landmark-ruling-for-tortured-laboratory-animals/
https://goveganworld.com/why-vegan/the-animals-we-use/research/
Using Vegan Rights to Promote Animal Rights
What legal rights do vegans have? There is some confusion about whether or not vegans are protected from discrimination, and to what extent we are entitled to be provided for in school, hospital, employment etc.
In this talk we outline the main legal rights that apply to vegans living in the UK and Ireland, under human rights and equality law, and how these rights can be used to defend against discrimination and push for better provision.
We were not able to video this talk but we were able to record the audio, which we’ve added to our slideshow so that viewers have the benefit of the slides. The result is audio that is less than perfect, but hopefully clear enough to follow the talk. It may be improved by wearing headphones.
Much more detail on the rights of vegans can be found on our website.
In order to help vegans push for better provision and against discrimination, we have prepared some sample letters containing reference to the relevant legal protections for a number of common situations. Please feel free to make use of these sample letters in writing to employers and service providers. If you find that your rights are not taken seriously you can contact us for assistance and we will assist if we can. You can contact our Legal Counsel on barbara.bolton@goveganworld.com
We have written a number of relevant blog pieces on:
- the parental right to have children educated in a way that is not in conflict with philosophical beliefs such as veganism,
- the 2019 UK employment tribunal decision confirming that veganism is a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act,
- the 2019 UK employment tribunal decision distinguishing veganism from vegetarianism in terms of protection under the Equality Act.
