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

22 February 2002


His Excellency Lieutenant General Omar Hassan al-Bashir
President of the Republic of Sudan
People's Palace
PO Box 281
Khartoum
Sudan


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 131,000 individual members and 300 affiliated groups. AAAS publishes the preeminent scientific journal Science. The association is concerned about the role of science in the world, including the rights and responsibilities of scientists. Our AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility was formed in 1976 to protect the human rights of scientists, engineers, and health professionals and to deal with issues relating to scientific freedom worldwide.

On behalf of the Committee, I am writing to express my concern about the College of Technological Science's decision to issue a one-year suspension of computer science student, Ms. Tahani Ibrahim Ahmed. According to reports, Ms. Ibrahim Ahmed is being targeted for engaging in human rights activities in her capacity as a member of the Sudanese Victims of Torture Group (SVTG) student network. In December 2001, Ms. Ibrahim Ahmed organized a symposium dealing with women's rights and provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

I am also disturbed to read reports that the university also suspended five other students for attending a conference on democracy. Suspended students include: Adam Fadl Allah Adam (law student), Husam El-Din Abdullah (medical student), Allaa El-Din Mustafa Mohamed Ali (agriculture student), Ghosai El-Nour Mohamed Ahmed (agriculture student), and Mohamed Al-Hadi Awad Sulieman (economics student).

The suspensions of the students is a clear violation of several human rights standards, including those enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted without dissent by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Sudan is a State party. Relevant provisions include of the Universal Declaration include:
· 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.
· Article 20(1): Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
· Article 26(1): Everyone has the right to education.

Relevant articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights include:
· Article 19(1): Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
· Article 19(2): 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 [or her] choice.
· Article 21: The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized.

I respectfully request that the College of Technological Science fully and unconditionally reinstate all of the students to their programs of study, as it appears that they have been suspended from school for exercising their internationally recognized human rights of association and expression. Furthermore, I would request that the Sudanese government take all necessary steps to end harassment and reprisals against human rights defenders.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.


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

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