In 2013 The Body Shop successfully persuaded the European Union to ban animal testing on products and ingredients. Four years on, The Body Shop are back with a new petition with a bigger goal: to internationally ban animal cruelty for the sake of cosmetics. And, they need you to help them succeed.
In conjunction with Cruelty-Free International, the high street beauty store needs 8 million people to sign their petition in order to get an audience with the UN. Having already persuaded the EU, which is the biggest consumer of cosmetics in the world, Israel, India, Iceland and New Zealand to go cruelty-free, what’s a few million signatures?
‘It happens in three steps: one, we get 8,000,000 signatures, and that is where we use our stores and communication platforms, then we go to the United Nations next year and get on the agenda at the General Assembly, and we call for a convention. And, to get that convention the General Assembly need to vote for a committee to start drafting that legislation. So, get the voices, get on the agenda and then get them to set up that committee that creates the legislation and then it’s just a matter of getting all the countries to sign up and vote for it.’ Jessie Macneil-Brown, Senior Manager International Campaigns & Corporate Responsibility told The Debrief.
‘The work starts now because we need to create noise so that politicians see that their citizens care about this.’ She added.
Michelle Thew from Cruelty-Free International explains that there are so many alternatives to animal testing it’s silly to think it’s still happening. ‘There are 20,000 ingredients in Europe that already have safety data on them, so there is no need for anymore testing so most smaller brands will be using a combination of those existing ingredients. And bigger brands who want to produce newer ingredients may be looking at their chemical composition and using computer modelling.
‘If they really need to test it on skin they use to shave the back of a guinea pig and test the product on that or an eye of a rabbit, but now you can do it with the alternatives of human skins and cornea models, which are not only cheaper but more effective because they can be modelled on human responses. It’s cutting edge technology that’s been forced to step up in the last decade, what we found was companies were moving forward, but the power of the European ban made a real difference.
With a presence in 66 countries, The Body Shop and it's 30 million customers have always come down on the right side of history, whether it’s helping ban animal testing, spreading awareness of human trafficking or producing vegan and vegetarian products. So we have all the faith in the world that they will ban cosmetic testing on animals. Do your bit by signing the petition now!
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.