Following the agenda of the Great Ape Project (GAP), the proposed law would declare that apes mawy not be killed or arbitrarily deprived of their liberty.

Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of GAP, called it "an historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defense of our evolutionary comrades."

Reuters reports the proposal would require the government to end the involuntary use of apes in circuses, television and dangerous experiments.

"There is no sound moral reason why possession of basic rights should be limited to members of a particular species," said philosopher and GAP co-founder Peter Singer.

He believes the new law could eventually “pave the way for the extension of rights to all primates, or all mammals, or all animals.”

But some opponents say the legislation amounts to extremism.

Wesley Smith of the faith-based Discovery Institute wrote in his blog: “Once people accept that premise (ape rights), Judeo-Christian philosophy goes to the guillotine.”

He warned that apes could become viewed as more important than some humans.

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