Basel Declaration

The Declaration was issued on 30 November 2010 by over 60 scientists from Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Sweden. The signatories commit to accepting greater responsibility in animal experiments and to intensive cooperation with the public in the form of a dialogue with prejudice. At the same time, they demand that essential animal experiments for obtaining research results remain permitted both now and in the future. With their Basel Declaration, researchers are seeking to achieve a more impartial approach to scientific issues by the public and a more trusting and reliable cooperation with national and international decision makers.

The signatories to the Basel Declaration are actively seeking to show that science and animal welfare are not diametrically opposed and to make a constructive contribution to the dialogue taking place in society – for example in the incorporation of the new EU Directive of 22 September 2010 on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes into the national laws.[1] (The revised EU Directive provides for the use of fewer laboratory animals for scientific purposes in the future and better reconciles the needs of research with the protection of animals without making research more difficult. The EU Member States must incorporate the Directive into national law within two years and apply these national regulations as from January 2013.)

“Animal experiments will remain necessary in biomedical research for the foreseeable future, but we are constantly working to refine the methods with animal welfare in mind.”[2] The signatories to the Declaration commit, amongst other things, to the use of animal experiments only when the research concerns fundamentally important knowledge and no alternative methods are available. As part of this commitment, their two-day conference in November 2010 ended with an affirmation of their allegiance to the 3R principle “Reduction, Refinement, Replacement”:

The 3R principle (replace, reduce, refine) has its origins with William M. S. Russell & Rex L. Burch, who published their “Principles of Humane Experimental Technique” in 1959. These principles are regarded internationally as the guideline for avoiding or reducing animal experiments and the suffering of laboratory animals:

• Replacement: replacement of animal experiments by methods that do not involve animals
• Reduction: reduction in the number of animals in unavoidable animal experiments
• Refinement: improvement in experimental procedures, so that unavoidable animal experiments

The participants in the symposium that adopted the Basel Declaration were unanimously agreed that science must not only take a clear stand with regard to the responsible handling of laboratory animals, but also has to show greater transparency toward the public.[3] To make their motivation and methods more comprehensible to the public and the decision makers, the researchers aim to cooperate more closely with politicians, the media and schools in the future and to give greater importance to the communication of science.

The authors of the Basel Declaration acknowledge the need for greater discussion of animal experiment issues in public and also of the risks of research approaches and possible misuse of new technological developments. In addition, they declare their intention to communicate not only results und scientific controversies, but also processes and approval procedures in the science process, in order to foster a deeper understanding of research.[4] With regard to the improvement of information for the public on research involving experiments the signatories to the Basel Declaration commit to the following:

1. We communicate openly and with transparency – also with regard to animal experiments. We proactively address the problems and openly declare that part of our research involves animal experiments.
2. We grant journalists access to our laboratories.
3. We invite opinion formers, media people and teachers to enter into a dialogue with researchers on the problem area of basic research.
4. We endeavor to use a language that is comprehensible to the general public.
5. We declare our solidarity with all researchers who have to rely on animal experiments. We are united in rejecting unjustified allegations against individuals. We shall jointly and publicly condemn vandalism, threats and other criminal acts.

Modern medicine is based on discoveries of basic biological research and their implementation in applied research. The initial signatories to the Basel Declaration see the tendency to restrict animal experiments, especially in the field of basic research, as a major risk. And they maintain that no stage of research (neither basic nor applied research) must be categorically excluded from those purposes of animal experiments that are deemed permissible. Apart from the difficulty of differentiating the two stages in the field of medical research, applied research is generally inconceivable without basic research. Basic research is not an end in itself, but serves as the basis for further consideration. Basic and applied research is all part of the same continuum in biomedical research and the assignment of a research project to one part or the other is often rather arbitrary. On the other hand, the categorization of an experiment as basic research does not yet justify the use of animals per se. The demonstration that an animal experiment is indispensable is just as necessary as a weighing the interests of animal welfare against the benefits according to the research objective.