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

10 July 2000

His Excellency Mohammed Hosni Mubarak
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abedine Palace
Cairo, EGYPT

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 more than 138,000 individual members and 275 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 our concern about the arrest and detention of Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim and his colleagues from the Ibn Khaldun Center for Developmental Studies. It is the understanding of the Committee that Dr. Ibrahim was arrested on 30 June 2000 on charges of improperly collecting funds from international sources to prepare provocative propaganda that could cause damage to the public interest and Egypt's reputation abroad. The propaganda in question included a documentary that the Center was preparing that details electoral corruption in Egypt.

The Committee urges you to assure Dr. Ibrahim's immediate and unconditional release if he was arrested solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression. We fear that Dr. Ibrahim's arrest may be part of a larger attempt by Egyptian authorities to stifle political dissent and intimidate human rights defenders.

Suppressing legitimate political debate is in direct violation of several international treaties, including the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which Egypt ratified on 4 August 1967.

Relevant articles of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights 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 (Article 19.2).

This action also violates Article 6 of the 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 on 8 March 1999. This declaration directly affirms the international standard of protecting the rights of human rights defenders, like Dr. Ibrahim:
· To know, seek, obtain, receive and hold information about all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including having access to information as to how those rights and freedoms are given effect in domestic legislative, judicial or administrative systems;
· To freely publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms;
· To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters.

We look forward to learning of Dr. Ibrahim's status, and we will follow this case with continued interest.


Sincerely,

Irving Lerch
Chair, AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

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