The 2005 online edition of the Directory of Persecuted Scientists, Engineers, and Health Professionals also reports on AAAS activities on behalf of scientists and engineers throughout the world who are reported to have been imprisoned or harassed for acting on their beliefs.

The directory reflects casework completed between January 2003 and December 2004 by the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program. Cases include those of Egyptian sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, who faced persecution for speaking out about election fraud and promoting democracy in his country; humanitarian aid worker Arjan Erkel, who was taken hostage in the Russian republic of Dagestan, where he was providing much-needed medical aid to refugees from neighboring Chechnya; and, Vietnamese doctor and human rights advocate Nguyen Dan Que, who spent 19 years in prison for speaking out for democracy and human rights in his country.

The AAAS program monitors human rights violations perpetrated against scientists, engineers, and health professionals, and organizes campaigns on their behalf. The program also organizes humanitarian and fact-finding missions to investigate human rights issues; prepares documentation for Congress, other U.S. government officials, and international human rights groups; and organizes symposia on human rights-related issues.

The program was established in 1977 to give scientists a way to help their colleagues around the world whose human rights are threatened or violated. Mobilizing effective assistance to protect the human rights of scientists around the world remains central to its mission, as well as making the tools and knowledge of science available to benefit the field of human rights.

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Contact: Lonnie Shekhtman
lshekhtm@aaas.org
202-326-6434
American Association for the Advancement of Science
7-Apr-2005