AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

AAAS Action Alerts

The AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program calls attention to human rights abuses involving scientists and scientific communities through the circulation of Action Alerts issued by professional associations on behalf of their colleagues or by human rights organizations.

Cases that are publicized through the Action Alerts are researched and developed by the association or organization that submits the call for action. The alerts provide important background information on the case(s), and recommend specific actions to support the victim(s) of human rights abuse. The Action Alerts reach hundreds of AAAS members and other concerned scientists and engineers who are a part of SRHRL's network.

2008 Action Alerts

From:	Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights
Re:	Call for Urgent Action on behalf of Dr. Kamiar Alaei and Dr. Arash Alaei
Date:	July 29, 2008

Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights urge action on the behalf of Dr. Kamiar Alaei and Dr. Arash Alaei, who have both been detained in Iran.

Background

Dr. Kamiar Alaei, a doctoral candidate at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health, and Dr. Arash Alaei, a former Director of the International Education and Research Cooperation of the Iranian National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, were detained June 22-23 in Iran.

Doctors Arash and Kamiar Alaei, who are brothers, were detained without charge by Iranian security forces in late June, and their whereabouts remain unknown.  On June 22, security forces detained Arash Alaei. The following morning, they accompanied him to his home, where they arrested Kamiar Alaei. The authorities have not yet announced why the brothers were detained or whether or not they intend to bring any charges against them. Moreover, they have refused to disclose information about where the Alaei brothers are being held and have not provided them access to counsel.

Arash and Kamiar are well known in Iran and internationally for their contributions to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs. For more than 20 years, the Alaei brothers have been active in addressing problems relating to drug use, with a focus on the spread of HIV/AIDS, and have played a key role in putting these issues on the national health care agenda. They have worked closely with government and religious leaders to ensure support for education campaigns on HIV transmission, including those targeting youth, and for HIV and harm reduction programs in prisons. They have also worked to share their expertise with neighboring countries by holding training workshops for Afghan and Tajik health care professionals.

Neither of the men is known to have any involvement in political activities.

Press Links

Asia Society (7/16)
BBC (7/22) 
CSR News Wire (7/22)
dailygazette.com (7/23)
Capital News 9 (7/22)
kaisernetwork.org (7/22)
timesunion.com (7/22)
Human Rights Watch (7/21)
Physicians for Human Rights (7/18)

Take Action

Sign the Physicians for Human Rights Online Petition

Endorsement of the petition can also be sent to: skalloch@phrusa.org

This Action Alert was posted by the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program on behalf of the Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch.

 

From:	The Committee of Concerned Scientists
Re:	Call for Action on Behalf of US Nuclear Physicist Dr. Abdel-Moniem Ali El-Ganayni
Date:	June 12, 2008

The Committee of Concerned Scientists, an independent organization of scientists, physicians and scholars devoted to the protection and advancement of human rights and scientific freedom for colleagues all over the world, urges action on the behalf of Dr. Abdel-Moniem Ali El-Ganayni.

Background

Dr. Abdel-Moniem Ali El-Ganayni, a nuclear physicist and contractor for the Department of Energy (DOE) lost his job after his security clearance was terminated without a hearing.  Dr. El-Ganayni, a US citizen, had worked for 18 years as a DOE contractor on nuclear naval reactor programs.  As a result of losing his clearance, he also lost his job at Bechtel Bettis Inc.

Dr. El-Ganayni, a devout Muslim, was the imam at Pennsylvania State Correctional Center in Marienville, Forest County, PA, for five months in 2007.  He left as a result of a disagreement with prison authorities, according to the Pittsburg Post Gazette (2/3/2008).  During that time, he distributed to inmates a book by Harun Yahya, an Islamic creationist, which includes a passage, copied nearly verbatim, from a study of ants by Pulitzer Prize winning biologists Edward O. Wilson and Bert Holldobler.  That statement reads as follows:

"The ultimate in public service is to destroy enemies by committing suicide in defense of the colony. Many kinds of ants are prepared to assume this kamikaze role in one way or another, but none more dramatically than a species of Camponotus of the saundersi group living in the rain forests of Malaysia."

Soon after Dr. El-Ganayni left his position at the prison, DOE and FBI agents questioned him about the book and his speeches and religious activities.  He denied any disloyalty to the US or support of terrorist activities.

According to the Pittsburg Post, Dr. Wilson, the world's foremost authority on ants, said he was startled to learn that his words had become an issue for Dr. El-Ganayni. "My reaction is astonishment at the unfairness of it," Dr. Wilson said. Dr. El-Ganayni said he was similarly astonished, "I told them, 'Look at my actions. I have been here since 1980; I never had a problem at work; I never broke a law; I never had any trouble except the dispute at the prison.'"

Dr. El-Ganayni's security clearance was suspended in December 2007 and revoked without a hearing on May 19, 2008. The decision to revoke Dr. El-Ganayni's clearance without holding a hearing was made by acting Deputy Secretary of Energy, Jeffrey F. Kupfer.

In his termination of Dr. El-Ganayni's security clearance, Kupfer stated that the appeals process set forth in DOE regulations "cannot be made available ... without damaging the interests of national security by revealing classified information."  Furthermore, he stated that his decision is "conclusive," meaning the matter is officially closed.

"It's Franz Kafka-land," said Witold Walczak, legal director of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which, according to the Pittsburg Post (6/1/2008), has taken on Dr. El-Ganayni's case. Walczak plans to pursue the matter through legal and congressional avenues.

The Committee of Concerned Scientists does not question the DOE's national security obligation to secure its nuclear activities or those of its contractors from any threat of terrorism or subversion.  But in view of the serious issues of freedom of speech and of religion involved in this case, we question the decision to revoke a security clearance without the hearing guaranteed by DOE procedures.  We urge the Department of Energy to grant Dr. El-Ganayni a full hearing on his security clearance.

Please support Dr. El-Ganayni's court case by writing to the Secretary of Energy and publicize it in your newspapers and to your elected representatives.

This Action Alert was posted by the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program on behalf of the Committee of Concerned Scientists.

 

From:	Amnesty International
Re:	Death Threats to Guatemalan Forensic Anthropologists
Date:	February 7th 2008

FACTS OF THE CASE:

UA 238/05 (14 September 2005) and follow-ups (13 January 2006 and 16 March 2006)

Fear for safety/death threats: GUATEMALA

• The Fredy Peccerelli (m), head of the Fundacion de Antropologia Forense de Guatemala (FAFG), Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation
  
  
• Omar Bertoni Giron (m), FAFG Laboratory Coordinator and husband of Bianka Peccerelli Monterroso * Bianka Peccerelli Monterroso (f), sister of Fredy Peccerelli
  
  
• Gianni Peccerelli (m), brother of Fredy Peccerelli
  
  
• Other members of the FAFG

Fredy Peccerelli, head of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (Fundación de Antropología Forense Guatemala; FAFG), his brother Gianni Peccerelli, his sister Bianka Peccerelli Monterroso and his brother-in-law Omar Bertoni Giron continue to be in grave danger following a new death threat made against them.

On 2 February, Omar Bertoni Giron received an SMS text message on his mobile phone which read, "I > They are going to take your security away and Omar, Ginni, Bianca y Fredy will die sons of bitches" (Yo > Les van a quitar la seguridad y mueren Omar, Ginni, Bianca y Fredy hijos de puta).

The threats took place the same day that the newspaper Siglo XXI published an article reporting a statement by the Deputy Minister of the Interior announcing a general review of police personnel assigned to personal protection duties.

In 2002, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had requested that the four individuals named above, along with other members of the FAFG receive precautionary protection measures. In 2006, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IA Court HR) renewed the request. However, concerns persist regarding the effectiveness of the protection provided. In January 2006, FAFG were also threatened shortly after protection measures had been decreased (See UA 238/05, 13 January 2006 and follow-ups).

On 2 February 2008, another article in Siglo XXI reported that testimony was due to be given in Spain this month by witnesses to the Guatemalan genocide during the 1980s, before a Spanish judge. Fredy Peccerelli and other members of the FAFG have been subjected to numerous death threats as a result of their work to exhume mass graves of those killed by the Guatemalan military and their civilian allies during the internal armed conflict (1960-1996).

RECOMMENDED ACTION

Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

• American expressing grave concern for the safety of Fredy Peccerelli, Omar Bertoni Giron, Bianka Peccerelli and Gianni Peccerelli following a death threat against them received on 2 February 2008;
  
  
• urging the authorities to take immediate steps to provide effective protection measures for the four of them in accordance with the requests made by the IACHR and the IA Court HR in 2002 and 2006 respectively;
  
  
• calling for an immediate and thorough investigation into the threats, identifying those responsible and bringing them to justice;
  
  
• reminding the authorities of the right of human rights defenders to carry out their activities without any restrictions or fear of reprisals, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups and Institutions to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

This Action Alert was posted by the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program on behalf of Amnesty International.

 

From:	American Political Science Association
Re:	Call for Urgent Action on Behalf of Saudi Political Scientist
Date:	May 30th 2008

The Committee on Professional Ethics, Rights and Freedoms of the American Political Science Association (APSA) urges action on behalf of Dr. Matrouk al-Faleh, professor of political science at the Kind Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  What follows is an abbreviated capsule of the situation as it is understood by the Committee and is drawn from the sources as cited which can provide more detail.

Background

Although some of facts remain unclear, and the personal situation may have changed, it has become clear from a “human call from King Saud University, Political Science Department [in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia] to all Political Science departments and all civil society organizations in the United States,” various press reports (notably The Washington Post and CNN), and notices from Human Rights Watch (http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/21/saudia 18895.htm) and Amnesty International (uan@aiusa.org amnestyusa.org/urgent/) that Dr. Matrouk al-Faleh, an academic and human rights activist, was apparently taken into custody by the Saudi Interior Ministry on May 19, 2008, on the premises of King Saud University in Riyadh, where he teaches political science.  The message from the Political Science Department listed the following phone contact numbers:  Director of the Department 00966 4674208; Secretary of the Department  00966 4674209 or 00966 4674201 and fax  00966 4674207.

Dr. al-Faleh’s arrest reportedly took place two days after he publicly criticized conditions in a prison where two other Saudi human rights activists (the brothers Isaa and Dr. Abdullah al-Hamid) are serving jail terms after having been found guilty of “incitement to protest” after they took part in what was reported by Amnesty International as a peaceful demonstration outside Buraida prison, north of Riyadh, by women relatives of political detainees held at the prison.

The Saudi Arabian authorities have thus far not disclosed publicly the reason for Dr. Matrouk al-Faleh’s arrest, but it may be connected to the publication on May 17, 2008 of an article he wrote following his visit to al-Buraida prison in which he referred to Dr. Abdullah and Issa al-Hamid, and criticized their harsh and overcrowded prison conditions.  Dr. al-Faleh was previously arrested in March 2004 after calling for political reform, and was sentenced to six years imprisonment in May 2005 on charges that included “sowing dissent and disobeying the ruler” (see Amnesty International’s May 20, 2008 “Urgent Action”).  He was released after being granted a royal pardon by King Abdullah on August 8, 2005.  Since his release he has not been permitted to travel abroad.  

As part of a broader context provided from Human Rights Watch, it is worth noting that in May 2006, Saudi Arabia was elected to a three-year term on the United Nations Human Rights Council after pledging its “confirmed commitment with the defense, protection and promotion of human right [sic],” including by a “policy of active cooperation with international [human rights] organization.”  Human Rights Watch also notes that Article 32 of the Arab Charter of Human Rights, which Saudi Arabia signed in 2004, and which the Shura Council (appointed parliament) ratified in March 2008, guarantees the freedom of opinion and expression and “the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.”  In addition, the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the United National General Assembly in 1998 specifies that everyone has the right “[t]o communicate with non-governmental or intergovernmental organizations” (Article 5), and “freely to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms” (Article 6).

This Action Alert was posted by the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program on behalf of the Committee on Professional Ethics, Rights and Freedoms of the American Political Science Association (APSA).