With all the talk about civil rights, nonsensical right wing versions of such, and utter confusion about who can do what, I believe its time we put an end to this, once and for all. To this end, I propose: Universal Sapience Rights
It has never made sense why some can get inalienable rights, while others get none. And it seems every time a new group wishes to be treated as the equals they are, we must go through this whole irritating, stupid and always inevitable process of slooowly letting them be part of life on our world. In order to accomodate future events more readily, we must implement a promise of rights to ALL sapient creatures. Whether humans, another species that develops sapience native to Sol-3, extra terrestrial species, mechanical, inorganic, energetic, angel, demon or even deity should not matter, as is true with many others of that sort.
If a being is willing and able to argue that it is indeed sapient, then we afford the protections to them automaticlaly. The ability to argue it proves their point more than the argument itself. In the case of Supernatural and Divine forces, they are equally subject to Sapience Rights. Even God and Satan would share the same rights in this space. However, for a supernatural being to be considerd for sapient rights, it must present itself unambiguously and in person to advocate for itself, just as all other new groups.
This protection applies to the WHOLE species (if it is a species), even if its members may not all possess the capacity of agency. They are treated just the same, however, with concern to rights; its the group, not the individual, that matters in this case.
Definitions on interactions with nonsapient beings are not regulated by this document, instead falling to the sapience most considerd to "own" the nonsapient in question to determine the extent of legal interaction: Just as eating Cows in India is considerd wrong, and eating pigs in judaism is considerd wrong, both are accepteable in western religions and nonreligious.
On a similar note, this proposal reflects a view of sapience from the Western human philosophies. While we appreciate the desire, and respect it, to consider all things to be sapient in eastern cultures, the resource to prove and quantify this do not exist. Perhaps in time they will, but for now, they simply dont.
I have begun work on a list of Universal Rights that can and must be afforded to all sapient beings, but only a few concrete: right to Life, the right to native representation in criminal proceedings, the right to love between sapients, protection from institutional torture, murder and hard labor, and many more.
Stay tuned, there is much more to come soon. We should all get behind this idea, so we never, EVER have to waste our time and intelligence on an issue that will inevitably turn out that way anyway.
