AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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Report on Science and Human Rights

Summer/Fall 2000 Vol XXI, No. 2

The AAAS Human Rights Action Network (AAASHRAN) has recently sent out alerts about two more cases concerning academic freedom in the former Soviet Union.

In Russia, Dr. Igor Sutyagin, a senior staff researcher at the Institute of USA and Canada Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, is currently in jail awaiting a trial where he is charged with espionage and revealing state secrets for researching civilian-military relationships in Russia.

In Belarus, Dr. Yury Bandazhevsky was charged with taking bribes from students seeking admission to his research institute. The charges came shortly after Dr. Bandazhevsky, an expert on the effects of radiation exposure, published a report that was critical of the Belarusian government’s health policies.

For more information about these cases and how you can get involved, visit the AAASHRAN web site at: http://shr.aaas.org/aaashran.