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Letter of Appeal from the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

20 March 2001


His Excellency Lieutenant General Omar Hassan al-Bashir
President of the Republic of Sudan
Peoples' Palace
PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan
By fax: 011 24911 787676 or 011 24911 783223


Your Excellency:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the largest organization of natural and social scientists in the United States, and the world's largest federation of scientific organizations, with 145,000 individual members and 300 affiliated groups. Our AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility was formed in 1976 to protect the human rights of scientists and to deal with issues relating to scientific freedom worldwide.

On behalf of the Committee, I am writing to express my concern about the recent detention of Dr. Nagib Nagmeldin. It is my understanding that Dr. Nagmeldin and his colleagues at the Amel Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and Violence, Mr. Fatih Abdel Rahman and Mrs. Zienab Omer Ahmed, were detained on 11 March 2001. While Mr. Abdel and Mrs. Omer were released later that evening, Dr. Nagmeldin remains in custody at Kober Prison in Khartoum.

I respectfully request that the nature of the charges against Dr. Nagmeldin be promptly clarified, and if there is no legal basis for his arrest, that he be immediately and unconditionally released. I also request that the authorities at Kober Prison grant Dr Nagmeldin immediate access to his family, legal representatives, and any medical attention that he may require. Furthermore, I request that he is not ill-treated while in detention.

I am very concerned because the arbitrary arrest and detention of Dr. Nagmeldin and his staff of the Amel Center appears to be part of a larger attempt by the government to intimidate human rights defenders.

Furthermore, I am extremely concerned about reports that Sudanese security authorities seized client records from the Amel Center. I urge the security forces to respect doctor/patient confidentiality and return the documents to the Amel Center immediately.

The arbitrary detention of Dr. Nagib Nagmeldin represents serious violations of several human rights standards, including:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights: (adopted without opposition by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 and further codified in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Sudan is a state party.)
· Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.
· Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
· Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
· Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

The Human Rights Defenders Declaration:
Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations (passed by consensus by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1998.)
· Article 11: Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to the lawful exercise of his or her occupation or profession.
· Article 7: Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to develop and discuss new human rights ideas and principles and to advocate their acceptance.
· Article 12(2): The State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the [Universal Declaration of Human Rights].


I respectfully call on your government to honor its human rights obligations.

Sincerely,

Carole Nagengast, Ph.D.
Chair,
AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility


CC: Ambassador Mahdi Ibrahim Mohamed

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