AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

On Friday, 8 January 1999, the Yugoslav Government of Slobodan Milosevic denied visas to a delegation of prominent academics and scientists. The delegation included Canadian John Polanyi, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Jonathan Fanton, president of the New School University in New York, Richard Rorty, one of the world's leading philosophers, and Sam Treiman, renowned physicist, as well as staff members of the Academic Freedom Committee of Human Rights Watch and AAAS, and a reporter from Lingua Franca . The group intended to travel to Belgrade to meet Serbian academics, representatives of the Alternative Academic Educational Network, and members of the student opposition movement, to discuss the crackdown on Serbia's universities, including the new Law on the University passed on 26 May 1998.

This denial is consistent with recent efforts by government authorities to isolate the Serbian academic community. Other actions taken by the authorities include banning the study of literature by Croatian authors, and instructing students to study Russian, Polish, or Czech, offering only limited classes in English, French, and German, blocking the university's Internet computer servers from access to Web sites run by independent media, and ordering the deans at Belgrade University to stop students from using university computers to send messages and receive information over the Internet; however the order has been largely ignored. The crackdown on the independent media has led to the increased use of the Internet as an alternative to government controlled information.

The new Law on Universities seriously undermines academic freedom and the autonomy of Serbian universities, bringing them under the direct control of the government. It gives government authorities the power to appoint rectors, deans, and the governing boards of all public universities without input from university faculty, and it allows the government to shut down the universities at its discretion. Since its implementation, professors who have opposed the law or criticized the government have been targeted for dismissal.

The denial of visas to eminent academics seeking to meet with their colleagues, the dismissal of professors for exercising their right to freedom of opinion and expression, and interference with Internet communication are contrary to several provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was ratified by the former Yugoslavia, and to which the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia remains a State Party. These include:

• Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference (Article 19.1);
• everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice (Article 19.2);
• the right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized (Article 21); and
• the right to freedom of association with others... (Article 22).

In addition, the Yugoslav government's actions seriously infringe academic freedom and removes safeguards for academic autonomy.

(Sources of information for this update include AAAS, and the Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee. Sources of information for previous alerts include the Belgrade Center for Human Rights, the Belgrade Circle NGO, the Association of European Universities (CRE), Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee, and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telexes, telegrams, faxes, or airmail letters:

• Urging the Serbian government to repeal the Serbian Law on the University and restore autonomy to universities in Serbia;
• calling on Serbian officials to guarantee the rights of professors and students to freedom of opinion, expression, association and assembly without fear of reprisal;
• calling on Serbian officials to allow the free circulation of scholars by granting visas to academics seeking to maintain contact with their Serbian colleagues; and
• calling on the Serbian government to cease interference with Internet communications.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

His Excellency Slobodan Milosevic
President of the Former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia
Fax: 011 381 11 60 32 45 or
011 381 11 63 65 24
Salutation: Dear Mr. President

His Excellency Momir Bulatovic
Prime Minister of the Former Socialist Republic of
Fax: 011 381 11 63 71
Salutation: Dear Mr. Prime Minister

The Honorable Zoran Sokolovic
Minister of Internal Affairs of the Former Sociali
Fax: 011 381 11 64 18 67 or
011 381 11 68 59 37
Salutation: Dear Mr. Minister

Mr. Milos Bogicevic
Counsel General
Embassy of the Former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia
2410 California Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: 202 462 2508
Salutation: Dear Sir

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